The Second Summer
by Short Moose
Summary: How far would you go to help out a friend? Some people would go pretty far. This is part 3/10 of the Andi Hojem series. I don't own anything except for a few plot points -ShortMoose-.
1. Chapter 1

"I need your help." I told to the older man in front of me.

"And what could I possibly do for you?" He stared at me with his cold eyes through his glasses.

"It's my friend Lance. Look, someone told me that you could help." I was desperate. Lance was like a distant brother to me.

"What exactly is Lance's problem?"

"This is going to sound crazy, but he has these powers."

This intrigued him greatly. "Really?"

"Yes. Ever since we were kids, he'd get these aches. And these aches led to his skin becoming different. He would get this coating of granite around him, as well as him getting buffer and a lot stronger than he really was. Also, as a warning, he doesn't know what he does when he's in that state. He could kill hundreds of people in an hour, and as soon as it wears off, it's like nothing ever happened."

The man smiled and held out his hand. "What's your name?"

I shook it. "Andi Hojem."

"Andi Hojem. Now, where is this Lance?"

"He's safe. Away from people."

"Well," He clapped his hands together as if in triumph. "Let's go see him, shall we? We can take my car-" He started to walk towards where his car was.

"Uh, Colonel?" He turned back around to me. "I can get you there faster."

"You have powers too?" He started smiling again.

"Yes, but mine are under control."

He had his one sided smile on. "Take me to Lance, please."

I grabbed the sleeve of his military jacket and teleported to my house. "He's in the basement." I led him to the door, opened it quietly, and went down the stairs. "Lance? It's Andi."

"Andi?" Came a whimper from the furthest corner from where the Colonel and I stood.

"Lance," I went towards him.

"It's coming back Andi." He was grabbing his head and sweating terribly. "It's coming back."

"You're going to be okay Lance. I've brought someone to help. His name's Colonel William Stryker."

"Hello Lance." Stryker approached and knelt down to him next to me.

Lance screamed and his body started to turn shiny and black. "Get away." He hissed through clenched teeth. I pushed Stryker back and only backed off slightly. "Andi, leave." He pleaded.

"You can't hurt me Lance. I'm gonna get you through this." Stryker just stood on the bottom stair, watching us.

Lance screamed again, and grew about a foot in height and gained about eighty pounds worth of muscle. His eyes went bright blue and pure rage covered his face. "Get out Colonel. Now." But he didn't move.

Lance screamed at me, and then lunged towards me. I counteracted with a large burst of wind that shot him into the wall. "You have to fight it Lance!" He didn't listen again, so I raised roots from under the foundation and they tied up his legs. He broke out of them, so I raised my hands and more came up. As I circled my hands, they twisted themselves around his body. He struggled to get out of them, they only squeezed him tighter. After a few minutes, Lance started to calm down, and I brought the roots down enough to anchor him to the floor. I turned to Stryker who had a grin on his face. "So can you help him or not?"

He nodded. "Yes, I think I can."

"Where can I take him?"

"I'll take him tomorrow morning. I just need to call in a favor or two." I led him back upstairs.

"Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Stryker just smiled. "I'm sure I'll think of something. But, you'll have to come with us. Otherwise it's no deal."

"I have an exam tomorrow morning." I wasn't going to miss my last exam for the year.

"Then I'll pick you up after. Now-"

"You know what, I'll just bring him to you. I have to talk to my father anyway." At the end of my sophomore year, Mr. Hawkins had offered to adopt me. And of course I agreed to it. I moved into their house last summer, but I still keep this one for just in case purposes.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Uh, Dad?" I was washing the dishes that night, and Mr. Hawkins turned to me with a surprised look on his face. I had never called him Dad before.

"Yes Andi?" He came over to the sink next to me.

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Of course you can."

"It's about my friend Lance. See, he's kind of like Virgil, Richie and myself, except he didn't get hit with Bang Gas. It's a natural mutation. Well, his powers per se, are completely out of control. They always were. He was able to keep it under wraps for a while, but lately it's been getting worse. So I went to find this guy, William Stryker."

"How do you know about William Stryker?"

"This guy named Hannibal told me about him, but that doesn't matter. Look, Stryker said that he would help Lance but I would have to go with him."

"Andi, William Stryker is not a good man. Do not trust him."

"I don't. It's just that he might be Lance's only chance to learn how to control his powers."

Mr. Hawkins shook his head. "I don't like this."

"I know. But I need to go. Um, there is one thing you can do for me though."

"What?"

"Can you keep your ear open for information about a Charles Xavier? He was another name that Hannibal mentioned."

He nodded. "Sure." He was about to leave when he said, "You gonna tell the boys?"

"I wasn't going to. But if they ask, which they will, could you tell him I'm on business in California." Mr. Hawkins then got this confused look. "Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries are going to become sister companies, so I have to be in Malibu." That actually wasn't a lie. Wayne Enterprises and Stark Industries were merging. Bruce was in Cali right now, probably lounging about with Tony.

"Sure."

"Thanks, Dad." I gave him a hug and went back to the dishes.


	2. Chapter 2

"These will be your quarters." Stryker led me to an open door. I looked in and saw a man cleaning a gun.

"Do you think it wise to have both male and female share a room?"

He gave that one sided smirk. "I'm going to leave that decision up to you." His eyes went from me to the man in the room who was now staring at us from his cot. "Play nice."

When he left, I turned to the man but said nothing. Our eyes didn't break contact as I moved into the cot across from his. "You get drafted too?"

"No, I volunteered."

He scoffed. "Why?"

"To help my friend." Who did this guy think he was?

He started putting his gun back together. "You want to be a martyr?"

It was me who scoffed this time. "I don't die easily."

He smiled. "Welcome to the club." After his gun was put back together, he reached behind his head and unsheathed a katana. He then pulled out a file from his cargo pants and started sharpening the blade.

"So," I placed my duffel bag under the cot. "What do you bring to the table here?"

"I'm a swordsman. And yourself?" He sent me a quick glance.

"I'm Mother Nature." I held out my hand and teleported _Last Of The Mohicans_ from my bookshelf at the Hawkins home.

"That's a nice trick. Can you make it disappear too?" Smart ass.

"If I wanted to. But I'd rather read it instead." I opened the book and he went back to sharpening his sword. After a minute of silence between us, I asked. "When do we do stuff around here?"

"Stryker usually tells us. Other than that, we're either in our cells or we're training."

"Sounds like prison."

"It can be sometimes." We didn't speak for a little while after that. But about forty-five minutes later, he said, "Wanna go to the courtyard?"

"Sure." I put my book under the pillow and stood up.

He looked down at my jeans and my tight long sleeved green shirt. "You got a uniform hero?"

Hero? "Yeah." In fact I have four, but I brought two with me: my original, and the one that Virgil and Richie gave me. I went with my original. "Well turn around." He rolled his eyes as he turned to face the door. I quickly went into my duffel bag and pulled out the pair of cargo pants, sleeveless green under armor, and a pair of green high tops. I quickly changed and cleared my throat so that the swordsman turned around.

"Nice tats." He nodded towards the vines on my arms.

"Thanks." I hated it when people mentioned my tatoos. It's not like they were my idea. "We going or what?"

"Follow me." And I did. He led me out of the building to a large courtyard. There wasn't any grass, that's too bad. He stopped in the middle of the courtyard and turned to me. "Training starts now."

"Training?" I had expected there would be some kind of training, I just wanted to play dumb.

"Stryker put you in my cell, meaning that I have a new partner. And as partners, we have to train together."

"And how are we going to do that?" I already knew the answer.

He just smirked. "Let's just see if you can beat me first." He unsheathed two swords and came at me.

The minute he took off for me, it started raining heavily with thunder and lightning. What good is a fight if it's not even slightly dramatic?

The vines on my arm peeled off and I waited until my new partner got closer before I hit him with a gust of wind that threw him ten feet in the air. He landed on his feet, and came at me again. This time, I made grass grow to six feet. The man cut his way expertly through the new grass. I waited until he was about five feet from me and then I started making the grass wrap itself around him. He easily sliced through it, and then the grass grasped his feet and hung him in mid air. He was about to cut through that, but he was struck with a low voltage lightning bolt, it was just enough to stun him.

I walked over to him as we both got soaked from the down pour. "Had enough?"

"You cheated."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did. Too!"

"Now didn't I tell you two to play nice?" I retreated the grass back into the ground and cleared the skies. My new partner got up from the ground and we stared at Stryker who was standing next to the main building. I made my vines go back onto my arms and waited to be yelled at. Stryker started coming towards us. "That was a fine show. Not many can beat the Deadpool."

I gave a quick glance over at my new partner when Stryker said his name. He didn't like the name, I could sense it. "Well I cheated. I shouldn't have struck him with lightning."

"You do whatever you have to do to win. Remember that."

"I'll keep it in mind, now was there something you wanted to talk to us about or did you just come to watch the show?"

Deadpool just snickered and gave a quick look at me. Stryker barely smiled, but it was still there. "I came to tell you that we are going to start our 'testing' on Lance. You said you wanted to supervise"

"And I do." He turned around and Deadpool and myself followed him. "So, what's your name?" I asked Deadpool.

"Deadpool." His mouth dripped with disdain.

"I meant your real name."

After a minute, "Wade Wilson. And you?"

"Andi Hojem."

"I meant your other name."

I rolled my eyes. "Arbora."

He smirked. "Tree, how appropriate."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Can I help you?" a woman in her thirties with long white hair asked Richard Hawkins as he stood on the doorstep of a mansion.

"Yes, I'm supposed to be meeting with a Charles Xavier."

She smiled. "You must be Robert Hawkins." She held out her hand and he shook it. "I'm Ororo Munroe."

"It's very nice to meet you."

"Please follow me." She led him through the main room, up the staircase, down the hall, and into a room with two French doors. "Professor, Robert Hawkins is here to see you."

The man in the room turned his wheel chair from the window and smiled when he saw Mr. Hawkins. "Thank you Storm. Hello, I'm Charles Xavier."

"Robert Hawkins."

"Now, you wanted to talk to me about your daughter?" Xavier folded his hands in his lap.

"Sort of. It's about my daughter's friend. He's having trouble controlling his powers. And she wanted to know if you could help him out."

"Well, I can certainly try. So when can I meet your daughter and her friend?"

"See, the problem is, I don't really know."

"How could you not know?"

Mr. Hawkins wasn't really sure if he should tell Charles this, but he said, "She's with a man named William Stryker."

"Why would you let her go with William Stryker, he is a mess of danger."

"She was desperate to help Lance, her friend. And I wasn't going to be able to stop her."

"We have to get her out of there immediately." Xavier started to roll towards the door, but Mr. Hawkins stopped him.

"Hang on there, Charles. You don't know Andi."

"And you don't know Stryker. That man won't stop until he gets exactly what he wants, and he doesn't care who he has to go through to get it."

"Trust me, if Andi senses danger she'll take care of it."

"I doubt Andi can take out an army of mutants."

Mr. Hawkins smirked slightly. "Andi herself is an army."

"Robert, the only reason Stryker would be interested in her is if she had powers. What exactly are they?"

"Andi has the ability to control plants as well as the weather."

"That _is_ an interesting power Robert. But I seriously doubt that Andi can take on an entire army of mutants by herself."

Mr. Hawkins sat himself in one of the chairs by the wall. "Charles, she's already taken on an army by herself. And she won."

"Do tell." Xavier was now very interested.

"Have you ever heard of the Green Lantern Corps, Charles?"


	3. Chapter 3

_...I ran. There were too many of them. It was about five thousand to one. I couldn't handle them all, not even with the four rings. Mostly because I didn't know how to channel the power. They never told me how. "Please, protect me." I whispered and tried to create a forcefield. I took a minute, but I finally created one. Instead of one solid color, it swirled with violet, indigo, blue and green. I sat on the ground, trying to think of a way to defeat them. The silver people started pounding and beating on the forcefield. Come on, take a deep breath, just think._

_And then it hit me: Every one is counting on me. The whole world is counting on me. If I don't defeat them, they're going to take over the planet. I couldn't do this. I can't concentrate when they're trying to kill me. "J'ONN!" I screamed. I needed help, I couldn't do this on my own._

"_Andi, I know you're scared, but you've got to relax." He said into my head. _

"_I can't relax, J'onn I can't beat them!"_

"_Yes you can. You are Andrea Hojem, you can do anything."_

"_I can't even channel the rings."_

"_You made the forcefield, didn't you? You can do this." J'onn was always helping me like this._

"_How did you-"_

"_CNN is there."_

"_You're kidding."_

"_No."_

"_How did they get here?"_

"_Who knows, they're just there. Now breathe." I took a deep breath. "Focus on what you want the rings to do, and then make it happen. If you need me, just call me, and I'll be right there. Well, at least in here."_

_I took another deep breath. "Okay, I can do this." Closing my eyes, I quickly thought about what to do. When I snapped them open, I thought, "Get out of here, J'onn. You're not going to like what I'm about to do."_

"_Just get it done." Then he left. I brought my hands together, like I was praying, and concentrated. All of a sudden, the orb glowed bright white and the silver people backed off to see what was going on. I burst from the orb and stood completely engulfed in the four different colors. I stared at the army in front of me, and they stared right back._

_They yelled first and charged. I yelled back and ran straight at them._

I sat up from my cot breathing heavily. First it was Mrs. State, now it was the War. I just can't catch a break, can I? I started hitting the side of my head. "Get out, get out."

All of a sudden, I was hit with a pillow. "Shut up!" Wade yelled at me. "Do you know how long it's been since I've gotten a good night's sleep?"

"Sorry, I'm just going to take a walk." I got up from my bed and threw the pillow back at Wade before I left the cell. I wandered down to the hospital wing where Lance was and I went to the side of his bed. Poor guy, he looked so pale. I took a seat next to his bed, and just watched him for a little bit. "Lance? Lance can you hear me?"

No movement.

"Lance wake up. Lance." I gently touched his hand. "Common cowboy wake up."

"He can't hear you." Stryker said at the door.

"And why should I trust you?" If glares could kill, Stryker would be dead. "You're fucking tests made him like this."

"Things take time Andi. We just have to be patient."

"It's been two weeks Stryker! I'm tired of being patient! He should have woken up by now."

He was shaking his head. "Science is not exact, it's just guesses."

"Don't give me excuses. The one thing I can't stand is people not taking responsibility for their actions."

Stryker let what I said sink in for just a second before he said, "Why don't you take a little break? Go home for the weekend?"

"Don't bribe me."

"It's not a bribe."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying." He smirked slightly but then swallowed it. "I'll make you a deal: You go home, be with your family and I will call you if Lance so much as twitches his hand. Deal?"

"Promise?"

He nodded and held out his hand. "Promise."

Reluctantly, I shook it. "I'm taking Wade with me."

"Fine, he needs a vacation just as much as you do."

"'Scuse me." I whispered and I teleported back to my bed. And just to piss him off, I threw my pillow at him, "Wake up Wade!"

"Andi I swear to God-"

"Shut up Winston. We're going on vacation."

Wade shot up in surprise. "Vacation?"

I nodded. "Yup."

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Where're we going?"

"Dakota."

"The state?"

"The city."

"There's a city?"

"Yup."

"What's there?"

"My house."

"Oh." His hopes were just brought down.

"What? My current city of residence not good enough for you?"

"No, it's just...I was hoping for someplace more," He thought for a quick second. "Energetic."

"Like New Orleans?"

His eyes brightened. "Yes!"

I shook my head. "No."

"Aw, come on!"

"You know, you are a grown man. You could push that little button on your belt, and you might just end up in New Orleans."

"All that little button does is get me into trouble. Can't you just drop me off and come back for me?"

"Like I'd really leave you alone in a town full of bordellos. I would never be able to find you." He whined at me. Wade actually whined at me. "I'll make you a deal, okay? We go to my house, eat a nice dinner, spend the night, and just recharge. Then we make a quick stop at New Orleans, let you loose your life savings, and then we head to Westchester, New York."

"What's there?"

"Just someplace I've got to visit."

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Stryker showed himself in the doorway. "Can I see you two for a minute?"

"Sure." We both got up from our beds, and followed him down the hall to one of the more secure cells.

From it came loud shouts, "Ah swear to God that ah'm gonna beat y'all as soon as ah get outta here!"

Stryker just smirked when I looked at him with question. "She's a POW of sorts. Fred found her snooping around outside earlier."

"What'd you want us for?" Wade asked.

"A little experiment."

"I don't think much of your experiments Stryker." I hissed at him.

"Neither do I." I've known Wade for two weeks now, and already I've gotten him to trust me with no questions asked. "You tell us exactly what you want us to do or we walk."

Stryker just stared at Wade. He had never talked back like that before. "I just want to see who would win: Young Andi versus our prisoner."

"So what am I here for?"

"You're here to keep everything under control, just in case things get a little out of hand. Is that okay with you?" Oh great, I thought, he's going to sick Victor on Wade.

"Whatever." He pushed past Stryker and I followed him into the cell. The girl backed up against the wall as the two of us entered and stared at us with angry eyes.

She didn't even say a word before she jumped me and tackled me to the ground. I rolled us so that she was now on the bottom and she started to scratch at my face with her gloved hands. With my hand, I grabbed her two fast paced ones and with my right hand, I forced her head to the ground. When my hand met her forehead, my memories started to flood through my head starting with my most recent. But I wasn't just seeing my memories, I was seeing hers too. What was going on? Who was that guy with the back and red eyes?

And then I saw Johnny. "No." She was not going to see those. "That's private!" I finally let go of her and collapsed off to the side.

Wade was right at my side as soon s he threw the girl back into the room and shut the door. "Andi? Andi come on, look at me." He cradled me in his lap. "You're okay. You're okay." He was practically hysterical. This was absolutely not Wade Wilson.

"Wade-" Stryker tried to say.

"Just leave us the fuck alone!" He shouted as he picked me up and carried me away. He laid me down on my bed, ripped my pillow case from my pillow and started to tend to these cuts and gashes that had appeared as the girl and I continued to stay in skin to skin contact.

"Wade,"

"I'm right here."

"You know Stryker is going to kill you, right?" He laughed and I chuckled along with him.

"I'll deal with him later. You just worry about healing yourself up." What am I doing?! Wade thought as he made sure that I stayed laying down, What happened to fearless emotionless Wade Wilson who's only love was killing? He met a girl, one of the voices in the back of his head said to him. Not just any girl though, the other one said, he met Andi.


	4. Chapter 4

"I have good news." Stryker came into the doorway suddenly later that morning while we packed our things.

"What?" My scars had healed and my energy had restored.

"That mutant that you fought has the ability to steal another mutant's powers. However, after she touched you, rather you touched her, nothing happened. She didn't get any of your powers. Nor your memories, which was very strange indeed."

"So what does that mean?" Wade asked.

"It means that our young Andi here is...impervious to her. Meaning she's not a mutant."

"By mutant, you mean I was born with the gene, right?" he nodded. "Well I could've told you that. I inhaled some gas and it screwed me over, mind, body, and spirit."

"Wait! Take a step back." Wade said. "This girl must have stolen something, because if you noticed earlier, Andi had several wounds after they touched. Maybe her healing is a mutation but everything else was from that gas."

"Maybe." I knew that what Wade was saying was completely and utterly false, but I didn't feel like explaining it for the millionth time. "Ready to go Wade?"

"Yeah." He slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Now hold on a second." Stryker blocked the door. "It's a little early in the day for vacation."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Do you know how long it's going to take to have a suit tailored for him for dinner _tonight_? And plus, we don't have any form of transportation because I really don't feel like teleporting into the middle of Mens Wearhouse."

He stared at me with cold eyes. "You can wait until noon."

"Fine." I threw my bag back onto my bed and Stryker left without another word. I waited a few minutes for Stryker to clear hearing distance before I said to Wade, "I've got to talk to the girl. Really talk to her."

"I don't think she's gonna let you. She seemed pretty mad at you, and that was before you did anything."

"I'm going to talk to her, whether she likes it or not."

"Your funeral." Wade mumbled as I walked past him.

"I don't die easily, remember?" He scoffed at me and I left. I walked down the hall and hesitated before I opened the door.

"Get away from me!" The girl shouted at me as I closed the door behind me. "Go away!"

"I just want to talk." I said calmly, hoping that my tone would be contagious.

"I don't want to talk to anyone! I just want to go home." She was curled into a ball against the right corner of the room.

Knowing how that felt, I slowly went over and sat down next to her. "Where's home?"

"New York."

"You one of Xavier's kids?"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Sorry," I kept my voice calm. "Are you one of his students?"

"Yeah."

"This is going to sound really weird but, who is the guy with the red and black eyes?"

She looked at me with worry in her eyes. "What?"

"When we touched, I saw some of your memories, and I've got to know who this guy is. More for curiosity than anything else."

"His name's Gambit."

"Is he one of Xavier's students too?"

"No." Okay, she wasn't obligated to read me a novel.

"So what's your name?"

"Why should I tell you?"

I shrugged. "Curiosity."

"You first."

"Alright, I'm Andi."

"Rogue."

"That's a pretty cool name."

"Meh." We just sat in silence for a few minutes before she said, "You know, you don't really seem like them."

I looked over at her. "In what way?"

"I don't know, you seem nicer than the others. Like you wouldn't hurt someone just to hurt someone. You'd have a reason."

That's really when we started talking. She talked about Gambit, I talked about the vacation this weekend. It was kind of nice actually. Then we heard this extremely loud crash. "What the-" The door was ripped open and a short, muscular man with three metal claws stood in the doorway. "Excuse me, but can I help you?"

"I came for the girl." He growled at me as Rogue and I got up from the floor.

"Alright, alright. Just calm down." I turned to Rogue. "You know this bub?"

"Yeah." She smiled. She started to go towards the man but then she turned back to me. "If you see Gambit in New Orleans, give him this for me." She handed me a Queen of Hearts playing card.

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you Sunday."

"What?" Okay I didn't tell her that part.

"Come on!" The man grabbed Rogue and ran out. I followed them, quickly looked around to make sure that no one was watching and shot a blast of wind from my hand. The two of them disappeared and reappeared on the front lawn of Xavier's Institute.

"Traitor!"

I looked over and saw Mirage. God did I hate her. She used to be with Xavier, but she let the power to project one's fears go to her head and she joined Stryker. "Wade!" I shouted as I ran from her. I got to the room. "We're leaving!"

"On bad terms?" He grabbed his and my bags when he saw my look. "I'll take that as a 'yes'." He grabbed my shoulder as I teleported us away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"_This_ is your house?" Wade looked around the atrium of the mansion.

"One of them." I led him through the atrium to the side door into the garage.

"So we're in Dakota?" Wade just followed like a puppy.

"Gotham actually. Red or green?" I was looking through the cabinet that held every car key.

"Gotham? As in Batman?"

"Yes. Now red or green?"

"Green. I only thought that Batman and Gotham was a tabloid character and place." I grabbed the set of keys and strolled over to the viper.

"Actually he is a character of sorts. But Gotham's real." Of course Batman's real. Stupid head. I hopped into the driver's seat and Wade got into the passenger's side.

"I didn't know you knew how to drive." I opened the garage door and backed down the twenty foot driveway.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." I accelerated down the street past the sign that read, 'Gotham City: Fourteen Miles.'

"So how long till we get to Dakota?"

"About seventy-four miles...ish."

"And you know how to get there from here?"

"Course I do." I hit the accelerator again and I sped into town.


	5. Chapter 5

"You look very nice Wade." I said to him as we got dressed in my old guardian's room. That's where the _big_ mirror was.

"Thank you." He brushed off his shoulders for a final touch.

"I knew you and Bruce were the same size. I just knew it." I turned my back to him. "Zip me?"

"Bruce?" He questioned as his zipped up my dress. God I hate dresses. "Who's Bruce?"

"My brother. Hope that you never meet him. Especially if he ever found out that we've been living together for the past two weeks."

"Why?" Wade smirked. "Would he kill me or something?"

"No, no he wouldn't kill you. He's castrate you." Wade laughed. "And you think I'm kidding."

"So I take it Bruce is not the one I'm meeting tonight."

"No, that's Virgil. And his sister is Sharon, and their father is Richard Hawkins. Now his fiance's name is Trina Jessup. Wade I need your eyes for this one." He looked me in the eye. "Trina is a cop, okay. You cannot hint at anything. And when I say anything I mean anything. Got it?"

"Yeah." He pouted. This dinner was going to be no fun.

"And please don't talk about the yellow boxes." He started to say something in rebuttal but I put my hands together and begged him. "Please don't. Please don't freak her out. Because if you do, then you'll never be in with the family."

"It's not like we're getting married!"

"I know, I just like them approving of my friends."

"Aw, you're so sweet."

"Shut up." I hit him in the arm. "Come on, we should get going."

He grabbed my arm before I had time to recoil. "Why are you wearing this?" He snapped the skin colored under armor that I had on under my dress to cover my arms.

I jerked my arm out of his grasp. "We're going to a fancy restaurant and I don't want people looking at me."

"Uh huh. And and my scarred face is going to blend right in."

"I really don't know what you're talking about. It's barely a sunburn." He scoffed at me, I grabbed his arm and teleported us to the front steps of the Hawkins home. "Remember," I wiped off his shoulders one last time, "Normal." I opened the door and we stepped into the living room. "Hello? Dad? Virgil?" No answer. "Hello?" I said a little bit louder. Still no one answered.

Wade's voice faded into my ear as I stood in the living room with the family on my mind. "You don't think..." He trailed off and I knew exactly what he was getting at.

"They couldn't have beaten us here. There's no way." Suddenly, the extreme panic set in and I ran up the stairs. "Dad! Sharon! Virgil!"

I reached the hallway and a woman in her early twenties came out of the bathroom. "Andi! What are you yelling about?"

A smile erupted on my face and I ran and hugged her tightly. "You're okay. Oh, thank God you're okay."

"What is going on with you?" She asked as she let go of me, and looked at me like I was crazy. Okay, so I was halfway there.

"Nothing. Where's Virgil and Dad?"

"They're with Trina at the restaurant. I said I'd stay behind and wait for you. Can you drive? They took the station wagon."

"Yeah, sure. Come on, I want you to meet my friend Wade." She followed my back down the stairs and gawked when she saw Wade.

"Hi." She said awkwardly.

"Hey. I'm Wade Wilson." He held his hand out and she took it.

"I'm Sharon Hawkins." He brought her hand up to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on it.

"It's very nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Wade, behave." I said under my breath. "She has a boyfriend."

"Adam and I are taking a little time off right now." She was smiling at Wade and he smiled back at her.

"Okay, you two play nice while I get the car." Please behave Wade, please please please! I walked out the door, transported back to my old house, grabbed the keys to the viper and sped off back to the Hawkins house. "Alright guys- OH MY GOD!" I walked back into the house to find Wade and Sharon sucking face on the couch.

They jumped when they heard me shout and flew apart with bated breath. "Oh, jeez Andi."

"Wade! I told you to behave." I grabbed his tie and pulled him closer to me in a threatening manner.

He put his arms up in defense. "She kissed me."

"Just get in the car. Shotgun."

"But-"

"Now." Do I have to be the only grown up around here? Wade unwillingly went to the car. "And you," I moved on to Sharon. "What do you think you're doing, kissing a man probably ten years your senior? And what about Adam? Doesn't he count anymore?"

"Adam is off being Rubberband Man. I haven't seen him and he hasn't called in over two months." God I hate whiners.

"That doesn't mean you go and snog the first person you meet who happens to catch your eye."

"Andi you don't understand."

"Yes I do. And I'll tell you about it later but right now I need you to get into the car." Please just let this night be over.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hey Dad!" I hugged the larger man.

"Andrea, how have you been?"

"Fine, I've got a few new skeletons but other than that, I'm good."

He looked at me with soft eyes. "Whatever you've done, I really, _really_, don't want to know."

I only laughed. "Dad, this is my friend Wade. He's a member of the little cult thing that Stryker has set up."

"Was, I was a member." He shook Mr. Hawkins' hand.

"Wade, may I talk to you for one second, just over here." I sighed and shook my head as Mr. Hawkins took wade just out of hearing distance. "Now, what are your intentions with my Andrea?"

Okay, Wade thought, I should have expected that. "Sir, Andi is my friend. My... sidekick if you will. She is someone I care about. And I protect those that I care about at all costs. You need not worry about her."

"You're a smooth talker." Mr. Hawkins smirked.

"I'm also very dimwitted sir."

"You're also honest. I like people who are honest."

"Well then you'll like me. At least a little bit." Wade smiled his innocent smile, and Mr. Hawkins fell for it.

"Come on, let's go meet the rest of the family." He patted Wade on the shoulder and brought him over to our group who was standing by the podium.

Wade tapped me on the shoulder and I took that as a sign to start introductions. "Everyone, this is my friend Wade Wilson. Wade, this is Robert Hawkins, my dad; Trina Jessup, his fiancé; this is Virgil, and you know Sharon." They all shook hands. "Are we going to be seated, or are we gonna stand here all night?" I lightly joked.

"Actually we're waiting for one more, but he should be here soon." Trina piped in.

"Who?" How many other people would they invite to a family dinner?

"Me." A six foot one man with dark hair and eyes said behind me in a playful manner.

Oh sweet Jesus, I turned around. "Bruce, why aren't you in Malibu with Tony?"

"You think I'd miss my baby sister's homecoming? Think again. And I'm sorry I'm late Robert, I caught up at the airport."

"It's fine Bruce. And thank you very much for getting these reservations, this place is lovely."

"It was no problem at all, really." The hostess started to lead the family towards our table when Bruce held me back. "Alright, who's the dude?"

"What dude?" Just play dumb, maybe he'll fall for it.

"The dude who is wearing my suit."

"Oh, that dude. Well, that is my friend Wade."

"And where did you meet him?"

"At the lair of an evil villain." I said with the straightest face possible.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Why do I believe you?"

"Because I just spent the last two weeks at an evil villain's lair." When it comes to Bruce, you just might as well tell the truth. It's really not worth lying about.

"We _will_ talk about this later."

"We always talk about everything later." I sighed and he steered me in the direction on the table.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"What the hell were you thinking?" Bruce practically screamed at me when we got back to my house.

"I was thinking about helping my friend. You know, the one on the train back in last November?"

"It doesn't matter! You were supposed to stay out of this!"

Wade was sitting on the couch, just watching and enjoying himself. He raised his hand. "Stay out of what?"

"Out of everything! You were supposed to stay safe! That's why Robert agreed to adopt you! So that you could have a 'normal' life. You know this!"

"Yes, I know Bruce! I needed to help Lance, he was desperate! I came home one night and I found him in my basement. He was crying in pain, Brucie!"

"Well, you should have at least talked to me first!"

"Yeah, like I was really going to pop out of nowhere in Tony Stark's mansion to ask your permission to go to a place that you're going to say no to anyway." God that was a long sentence.

Brucie stared at me with hard eyes. "I would have gone with you."

"Well, it's over now. We're not going back." I plopped down onto the couch next to Wade.

"What about Lance? You're just going to leave him?"

"Well, he's in a coma right now, so I don't think he's in much trouble."

Bruce stared me right in the eye. "I know that look. You're gonna go back for him."

"Not now. I have to wait till things die down first."

"Okay," Bruce took a seat in the seat across from the couch. "How much trouble are you in?"

"Quite a lot actually, more than normal." Bruce sighed. "It's because I helped someone escape, okay? It's because I'm a Wayne, and I like to help people!" Bruce surely understood that.

And then Wade got it. "Oh my God! You're Bruce Wayne!"

"Not now Wade!" I hit him and he shut up, but he still looked really excited.

Bruce put his head in his hands for a minute to think, and then, "What can I do?"

"Can you stay around here for a little bit? Kind of, keep an eye on the city?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. So, what are you going to do now?"

"Well, we are going to go find a Cajun, then-"

"We have to work?" Wade whined. "In New Orleans?" Oh God, was he gonna cry?

"No, _I_ have to work. If you recall, I'm slightly too young to gamble, so you can have all the fun you want, I'm gonna go find Gambit."

"Damn, that guy played me out of four hundred bucks."

"We're taking him to Xavier's."

"If you need anything, you call me first. Got it?"

"Yeah." The grandfather clock in the hallway struck two in the morning. "It's late, you want a lift home?"

"Sure. Can you make it a little smoother ride though? Every time it makes me want to throw up."

I chuckled. "I'll see what I can do. Be right back Wade."

"I'll be here." He stretched out on the couch and I teleported us to the Manor.

"Better?"

"A little." He still held his stomach, but it didn't bother him as much as before. "Good night, Andi."

"Night." I watched Bruce walk up the stairs, and when he disappeared I looked above the fireplace in the atrium. "Sorry Brucie." I teleported the two katanas from the wall. Bruce had them from his time with the League Of Shadows. He kept them to remind of what he could become.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The next morning, Bruce woke up and went into the atrium to pick the mail up from the door like every other morning. When he got there, he looked around the room in a daze. Something wasn't right. He took another quick look around the room and then he saw the yellow post-it on the wall. Bruce scoffed when he took it off the wall and read it:

"I'll bring them back. Promise. -Andi."


	6. Chapter 6

"You look like you're searching for blood." Wade said as I tightened the straps that held the two katanas on my back.

"Yeah well it might come down to that." I pulled my shoulder length hair back into a ponytail and then folded it under a black baseball hat.

"Okay, so please explain your plan again. I don't quite understand it."

"I'm going to...entice him. I'll make him talk to me and I'll get him away from the public, probably into a dark alley, because we all know how those old clichés pan out. Then I will show him the card, tell him I killed Rogue and a fight will probably ensue during which I will teleport him and myself to Xavier's."

"You know where it is?" He questioned.

Okay, so I didn't know where it is, "I have a general idea."

He scoffed. "Yeah, of course you do."

"Oi, have a little faith please. I'm going to be dealing with a master thief here." I straightened my tight black (low cut) shirt and my tight short shorts. I checked myself out in the full length mirror of a hotel room in New Orleans, and I came to the conclusion that I looked absolutely skanky with my outfit and knee-high, black, four-inch heeled boots. I looked perfect. "So how do I look," I turned for Wade.

"Slutty, with a baseball hat and swords."

I smiled. "Thank you."

"What's the time?"

I looked at my watch. "Almost six thirty." My watch actually said, seven thirty, but those fun little things called time zones get in the way every now and then.

"How are you going to take care of the whole...green problem?" I looked down at my bare arms which weren't so bare.

"I've actually been working on that, hold on." I closed my eyes, breathed deeply. Slowly, the vines started to retreat up my arms and legs. It was painful, and I started to whine and sweat. After five minutes, every leaf had retreated into the white lotus flower with a dark purple center on my shoulder blade. "See, good as new." I showed him.

"You don't look so good." Wade got up from his chair and sat me down on the bed. "Come on, you got a mission to do."

"Can't you do it?" He stared at my bright green eyes.

Wade shook his head, "I don't think he swings my way."

"Okay, give me a minute."

"You know, your eyes are green."

"Yeah, I know. They turn from brown to green when I'm healing myself." I rested my head on Wade's hip, for he was the only thing keeping me sitting up.

"You're healing yourself? What?" There were no marks or injuries anywhere.

"I don't really know, but it hurts like I just removed them by hand." I closed my eyes and so wanted to sleep right there, but I had a job to do. "Alright, I'm up, I'm up." Wade stood me up and supported me when I stumbled in the heels.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine. Let's go."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"'Nother." Remy LeBeau motioned for the bartender for another round. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he missed his _chére_. He hadn't seen her in months, and he was feeling quite lonely without her.

"Hey stranger." A lady in a black baseball hat appeared next to him with a trouble-making smile. "You wanna play a game of cards?" She fiddled with one in her hand while she waited his answer.

"_Non_." Was his simple reply.

"Please." She purred in his ear.

Remy turned to look at her, he stopped himself from telling her off and stared. She had wonderfully bright green eyes. They practically glowed under the brim of her hat. And that was what set him off to say, "V_ous avez les très de toute beauté yeux_."

She just blushed and said, "Can I show you something?" He nodded dumbly. "Follow me." She grabbed his hand and pulled him from the bar into the alley next to it. Remy was so stupefied about her eyes, he completely ignored the two swords on her back. She was laughing as she pinned him against the wall of the bar.

"Y' wanted t' show m' somet'ing?" Remy smiled wickedly.

"Yeah." She pulled the object out of the back pocket of her shorts and waved in front of his face.

His smile fell when he saw the Queen of Hearts he gave to Rogue over a year ago.

"Where'd y' get dis?" He snatched the card from her hand.

"I killed your girlfriend for it." She whispered into his ear.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I looked at his eyes as they glowed red from extreme anger. "Aw, did I make little Gambit upset?" He shoved me into the other wall. Then he slipped Rogue's card into his right coat pocket, while he took an entire deck of cards from the other pocket. Come on, make the first move.

Gambit swiftly charged a card and threw it at me. In response, I grabbed one of the katanas and sliced the card in half, completely evading both sides.

"Trust me boy, you don't want to do this." I unsheathed the other katana and stood ready for anything.

"_Oui_, I do." He fanned the cards out, and shot them all at me. I swung the swords like a fan and shredded the cards into confetti.

"That all you got?"

"_Non_." He reached under his coat and pulled out a twelve inch metal stick that he extended into a six foot bo staff.

"You know, I _really_ don't like people who put up a struggle."

"Den yer _not_ gonna like _moi_." He came at me and I jumped and flipped over him in response.

"You are going to have to do better than that Gam-Gam." Remy swung his bo and smacked me right in the face, sending me thirty feet into the street. Okay, he hits pretty hard.

"How's dat?"

I got up from the hotdog stand that was utterly destroyed when I crashed into it. "Well at least you hit me this time." I had a few cuts on my face, but they took care of themselves in a matter of seconds.

"You can heal?"

"Aw, you noticed. And I thought our relationship wasn't going anywhere."

That particular sentence set him off, and he tackled me back into the rubble of the hotdog stand. I kicked him off me, and pinned him with the baldes of both katanas against his throat.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you." I whispered into his ear.

He was defeated. His chére was dead, there was no more reason for him to be alive without her. "_Non_."

I pulled the blades back and put them back on my back. "I'm not gonna kill you."

"_Non_?"

"No, I'm going to do something much, much worse." From there, I teleported the two of us into Danger Room of Xavier's. Okay, not exactly where I wanted to end up. Especially when there was a session taking place. "SHIT!" I shouted as a laser just barely missed us. "What is going on here?"

"Training." Gambit said simply as he got up from the ground.

"For what?" I never got my answer. Why? Because life hates me. A metal arm wrapped itself around my waist and threw me against the opposite wall. I fell down and crashed into the floor. "Okay, that one hurt." And a huge blast to the back of the head put me out.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Is she going to be okay?" Rogue asked Professor Xavier in the infirmary.

"Yes, she should be fine. Although that hit to the head might cost her some time."

Rogue turned around and hit Scott Summers in the arm. "You see what you did?"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Then why did you aim for her head?"

"Who is she anyway?" Scott cringed under another strike from Rogue.

"I don't know! But I do know that her name is Andi. She helped Logan and I escape when I was captured."

The Professor then got an idea. "Andi? Let's take a peek into her head and see if it's the Andi we're waiting for." He wheeled his chair over to the bed, and placed his hands on either sides of her head.

Just as he entered her mind, he was thrown out quite violently and a loud voice boomed in his head. "HOW **DARE** YOU ENTER THIS MIND! You have not been given permission! State your name!"

Xavier grabbed his head and had to concentrate to think, "I am Professor Charles Xavier. I run a school for gifted children. And who are you?"

Out of nowhere, a large green man phased through the wall. "My name is J'onn J'onzz, and you had absolutely no right to invade her head."

"Excuse me, but why are you there?"

"I keep everything in order. Why were you there?" J'onn practically snarled at Xavier.

"I just wanted to know her name."

"It is Andrea Hojem if you must know. Now leave her alone, she has enough to deal with."

"I am truly sorry J'onn, but we were expecting her."

J'onn started to phase through the wall when he said, "Just stay out of her mind. It's dangerous enough in there with just her. I don't need two people up there making messes." Then he left.


	7. Chapter 7

"_Move." Wade whispered and I teleported from the roof of the building we were in to the park below. There was a middle aged army General sitting on a bench in the park. He goes there every night to smoke a cigar, there's really no reason for it, he just does it._

_I reappeared behind the bench and for the first time in my life I towered over someone. The General looked at the ground and sighed at my shadow. "I suppose Stryker sent you."_

"_Would you be upset if he didn't?"_

"_I'd be surprised." He took in a deep breath of smoke, savored it, and blew it away._

"_You know," I let the vines come off my arms. "Smoking will kill you." Then the vines wrapped themselves around his neck and squeezed until the man stopped struggling and just fell limp from the bench. As soon as he stopped breathing, I teleported back to the roof where Wade was waiting._

"_So how was your first kill?" He looked at me._

_I shook my head. "It wasn't my first."_

"_Really? How long ago was it?"_

"_About twelve years." I took out a handgun from the waist holster I had on and I shoved a full clip in. "Ready?"_

_Wade loaded up his two guns and stood up. "You know, five is a little young to be killing people."_

_I shrugged. "It was an accident. So was my mother's death, but I was about two minutes old so..."_

"_Uh huh." He didn't believe me, but that's okay. "Let's go. We've got two more stops tonight."_

I opened my eyes and a hairy blue face with glasses was six inches away from me. "Holy shit! Dear God, please back up!"

That startled the blue man and he jumped. "Oh, you're awake. I'm sorry about that."

I was breathing heavily, "Why is it that everyone seems to think that unconscious people like to have another person extremely close to them? Now who are you?"

"Dr. Hank McCoy." He gave me a small bow. "I've been treating your head wound, although I've haven't really needed to. That healing of yours comes in handy."

"You have no idea." I rolled my eyes and threw the sheets from the bed off of me.

"Whoa now, you're not going anywhere." Hank stepped in front of me to block the door.

"That's what you think. I have to see Charles Xavier. Excuse me." I teleported out and reappeared in an office where a bald man in a wheelchair was looking out a window. "Mr. Xavier?"

He turned his chair around and smiled when he saw me. "Andrea, how nice of you to stop by. Although, I'd have thought you'd be out longer with that blow to the head."

"Having two sets of cells helps."

"Please, sit." He pointed to the chair across from his desk and I sat down. "Tell me about yourself."

"I'll give you the short version. I was born in Gotham City as Andrea Lotus Hojem. My mother died giving birth to me, my surrogate father killed himself a few days later so I became Andrea Wayne, but I use Hojem because Wayne is too well known. I got my metahuman powers when I was a month old and five years later I got my first skeleton. Coincidentally, that is when I met Lance. I knew him for three years before I went into foster care. I was in foster care until I was fifteen, then I went into a community service program and there I met my last guardian, Virginia Skylar. After she died I lived alone until Mr. Hawkins adopted me at the end of my sophomore year. I am technically Andrea Hawkins, but I still use Hojem because it's easier. I have about five thousand six hundred and eighty four skeletons in my closet and I never wear these kinds of clothes. I've had these leaves since before I can remember, I'm claustrophobic, and that is everything about me in a nutshell." We sat in silence while he took it all in.

"That's quite a life."

"And that's just seventeen years."

He chuckled. "So what about Lance?"

I shook my head, "I don't know. In fact, I never know what I'm going to do when I'm in a predicament. I am very indecisive when it comes to important things like this. Just please don't tell that to Wade."

"Wade?"

"He's my sidekick." And then it hit me. "Oh my God Wade!" I ran from my seat and disappeared before I reached the door.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I'm only gonna be in town for a little bit." Wade said to a girl who he had brought back to the hotel room.

"Same here." He kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him closer to her. He in turn snaked his own arms down to her waist and started to lead her to the bed.

"We'll have to make every moment count." He whispered to her lips. She just smiled and kissed him more.

I appeared in the at the corner of the bed and sighed at what I saw. "Good God Wade,"

"Andi?" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's pretty much Wade's thinking process when it comes to being denied sex when he was so close to getting it.

"Who's she?" The woman asked, moderately offended.

"My sidekick. What are you doing here?"

"Uh, he's my sidekick." I said to the woman. "Come on, we're leaving."

"NO!"

"Wade, it's not real." I grabbed his arm.

"But-" I teleported before he could say anything.

"Would it help if I said that the yellow boxes are real?" I sad as soon as we got to Xavier's office.

"They_ are_ real!"

"I know, I know." I patted his shoulder and turned around to Charles.

"Mr. Xavier,"

"Professor, please."

"Professor," I corrected myself. "This is my sidekick, Wade Wilson. Wade, this is Professor Charles Xavier." The two shook hands.

"Wade, please tell me about yourself."

"Uh, I'm good but thank you for caring."

"Wade doesn't like to talk about his past." I explained. "But then again, who does?"

This time it was Charles who laughed. "That is a choice that I respect."

"Um, Professor, we wanted to know if it was possible for us to stay for a little while. Just until I can get Lance back."

"We would love to have you here."

"Minus one." Wade raised his hand.

"Wade?"

"I don't belong in a school and you know it."

"But, I'm your sidekick. You can't leave. Who's gonna look after me?" Maybe the puppy eyes will work.

"Kid," He put his hands on my shoulders. "You've got an entire school looking after you here. You don't need me saving your butt every other day."

"Wade," And in one second flat, I became that little girl from the dream.

He sighed, lent down and whispered in my ear, "A soldier doesn't get attached."

"You know I'm not a soldier."

Wade just smiled. "Yeah, I know. And don't ever become one." With that, he kissed the top of my head. "I'll come back. Don't you worry."

"If you get into trouble, you call me okay?"

He smirked. "You'll be the first to know." Without another word or action, Wade pressed the little button on his belt, and disappeared.

I just stood there. I don't really know how to explain how I felt, it was new to me. "Are you okay Andrea?"

"No. But I'll get over it." I probably won't, but that's besides the point.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"This was unexpected." Wade said as he appeared next to Wolverine in a bar.

"You're telling me." He took a swig of his beer.

"Hm," Wade motioned for the bartender to bring him a beer. "Hey Jimmy,"

"Logan."

"Logan," He corrected. "Do you hang out at Xavier's school at all?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

"Curiosity."

Logan glared at Wade. "Yeah."

"Do you stay there often?"

"Yeah." He raised his eyebrow in question. "Why?"

"Can you look after a girl for me? Just make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble. She's about yay-high, dark hair, dark eyes, and she's got tattoos all over her."

Logan scoffed. "How much trouble can one kid possibly get in?"

Wade chuckled into his beer. "You don't know Andi. Can you just look after her?"

"Why do you want me to?" Of course he was going to do it, he had this strange soft spot for girls who get into trouble.

"Because she's important to me. Now will you or won't you?"

"Sure, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you've gone soft."

"Thanks." Wade rolled his eyes and pressed the little button again.


	8. Chapter 8

"You can stay in here." The Professor took me to a room. "I apologize that you won't have a roommate but this is one of our more recent additions."

"It's no problem Professor. I'm just happy to be allowed to stay in this lovely school of yours." I opened the door to the room and stared at the walls of my temporary home. They were pink. God I hated pink.

Charles chuckled slightly. "Flattery will not get you anywhere here."

"It was worth a try." I smiled.

"Do you need to send for some clothes?" Oh, I forgot my clothes at the house. Stupid head!

"No, I'll get them. Um, Professor, what am I going to do here? I mean, I'm not on your team so it'd be a little pointless to practice maneuvers and stuff with them."

"Nothing says you can't join in on the Danger Room sessions."

"Yeah, last time I was in there it didn't quite work out for me, so I'm gonna try to steer clear of it. That's if you don't mind." He chuckled again.

"It's fine."

"But what do I do? I can't just sit in my room and do nothing! I'll go mad."

Charles shrugged his shoulders. "Do what other kids do during summer."

"Did you not get **anything** from that summary?"

"Why don't you ask Kitty? She's a social butterfly."

Like I'm really gonna know who Kitty is. "You know, I'm just gonna take a little walk around the grounds to kind of explore a little."

"Of course, I'll leave you to it then. You missed dinner, but there are always left overs in the fridge so you can help yourself. Uh, you might to cover up a little before you go outside, it's a tad bit chilly."

I looked down and started laughing. I'd forgotten that I was barely clothed, oh, and my tattoos came back. Le sigh, damn. "I am so sorry. I will get a sweater on right away and never take it off."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

He was right, it was a little nippy out. So, now clad in a dark brown hoodie with bright green swirl designs and a pair of light colored jeans and a white pair of shoes, I took a walk around the huge lawn. I got a whole bunch of stares and whispers from the younger kids and after a while, one brave soul decided to approach me.

"Excuse me?" I turned and saw a kid about thirteen with blonde hair and vibrant purple eyes. I had never seen purple eyes before, but this kid pulled them off.

"Yes?"

"Uh, w-who are you?"

"I'm Andi Hojem. And you are?"

"Zack Carson at your service." We shook hands and he jumped right to the point of all the kids' curiosities. "So what are your powers?"

I chuckled, "Um, I can control plants and the weather. And you?"

"I can make things come to life."

"Really?" That is such a cool power!

"Yeah. You don't happen to have a toy or something on you?"

"Well," I pulled out my wallet. "I have this little paper bird that my friend Daisy made me." I riffled through some papers and business cards and took out a paper bird about an inch and a half big.

Zack stared at the paper for a few seconds and his eyes glowed like a black light and just like that, the bird started flapping it's wings. It actually started flying away but I grabbed it out of the air before it could.

"Sorry," He took the life out of the little bird. "I hate killing them." He mumbled as I put it back into my wallet.

"Trust me, I know the feeling." Like we needed anymore depressed people in place.

"Does tha' mean y' killed befo'?" The voice of a familiar man said behind me.

I turned around sharply and came face to chest with Gambit. Okay, I was short, but not yay-high short. I was seventeen inches taller. "No." I hated lying, but I wasn't going to tell him of all people.

"Me t'inks you're lying." He said in an annoying tone.

Zack got this scared look in his eyes when I didn't retort right away. "I gotta go." he said quickly then he went to the pack of young ones by the bushes.

"Great! Now the whole school is going to think I killed someone." I stalked away from him, he followed me and grabbed my arm to stop me. "Thanks a lot asshole."

"Hey, I'll make sure tha' i' won' be spread. I jus' wan' a straight answer."

I ripped my arm from his and crossed them over my chest. "Why do you want to know?"

He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Would you've killed me back dere?"

"Come here." I grabbed his arm and teleported the two of us to my room. "No, I wouldn't have decapitated you. The only reason I even went after you is because Rogue wanted you back here. Yes, I have killed in the past. Over five thousand in fact. If there's anything else ask it now before I change my mind!"

"Why?"

"Because if I didn't, millions of people would have died. I made the choice of thousands of lives over millions. What side of the ultimatum would you've been on?"

"Di' y' try not killing 'm?"

"What, you think I like murdering? I gave them a choice: leave the planet forever, or face extinction. They chose extinction, not me. Now unless there is anything else, please leave me alone."

I was about to push him out the door when he asked, "Why were y' wit Stryker?"

"I was helping out my friend."

"And how di dat work out fer y'?"

"Well, he's in a coma so it's better than before."

"I' was tha' bad?"

"Yeah it was. Now please leave me alone." He left the room willingly and shut the door behind him.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Professor! Professor! Is it true?" Zack ran into Charles' office.

"Is what true?"

"Did Andi Hojem really kill people?" That single question threw him for a loop. How did the children find out so quickly? She's only been awake for a half hour.

"_Non_," Came a reply before Charles had time to answer. "_Brève-Remplir_ has no' killed anyone." Gambit came out of the shadow next to the Professor's bookcase.

"Then why did she say that she knew what it was like to kill things?"

"_Brève-Remplir_ was trying to make y' feel be'er. I's wha' she does." Gambit got real close to Zack and whispered. "Now don' go spreadin' no lies aroun' de school. I's no' nice."

Zack looked into Gambit's red and black eyes, nodded with fright, and left the office.

"I didn't think you liked Andrea, Gambit." Charles said after Zack closed the door.

"Remy don'. But he's no' abou' t' ruin her _vie_ 'ere. _Brève-Remplir_ can do dat 'erself."


	9. Chapter 9

"_Okay Andi, can you make the grass grow?" Alfred Pennyworth asked me as we sat in the back yard of Wayne Manor._

"_I can try." I closed my eyes, and pictured the grass we were sitting on growing up to three feet. And before I knew it, I couldn't see Alfred anymore. "I did it Alfie! I did it!" I screamed and jumped for joy. It was the first time I actually controlled something that I did with my powers._

"_It's great Andi, now can you make it short again?"_

"_I can do this, I can do this." I prepped myself as I closed my eyes again and pictured the grass receding this time. I didn't really feel the grass grow before, but I actually felt the energy that it took to grow the extremely tall grass come back to me._

_When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was Alfred smiling. "You did it. I'm so proud of you." I got up and ran to him, giving him a huge hug. "Come on, let's go to the greenhouse and try this out on the flowers." He picked me up and carried me to the greenhouse with the both of us laughing._

"_Excuse me!" He turned around and saw my Social Worker crossing the lawn with a sad faced Bruce following her. "I'm sorry, but we've found a family and it's time to go."_

"_I want to adopt her." Alfred said with a hard voice as he put me down and I hid behind his legs._

"_That's fine and dandy, but we've already found a family for her. Now it's time to leave," She held her hand out towards me. "You have to come with me Andrea."_

_I shook my head violently. "No."_

_She sighed. "Come on Andrea. I have other children to see today."_

"_No!" I clung to Alfie's leg. Why was it getting so stormy so quickly?_

_She reached over and grabbed my arm. "It's time to go!"_

"_NO!" I screamed. And all of a sudden there was a bright flash of lightning, a loud scream, a soft thump, and a gentle breeze. Then everything was silent._

I shot up from my bed as a crack of thunder followed a bolt of lightning. I sighed as I heard rain pound fervently against the mansion, I hope I don't get the weatherman fired again. "Come on rain, stop."

But it didn't. "Well I'm not getting back to sleep." I looked over at the clock on the nightstand. Four in the morning. It's later than usual so that's a plus. I groaned and got out of bed.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Logan sat up in his bed and sniffed the air. Something wasn't right. He threw his sheets off of the bed and headed downstairs. Why'd he smell breakfast?

"God damn it!" He heard and headed towards the kitchen. "That's the third batch!" He then heard a bang and saw me dumping something burnt into the trash can.

"What are you doing kid?"

"I'm trying to make some God damn eggs but they keep burning." I threw the skillet back onto the stove and grabbed three more from the carton on the counter. "I can make everything else, but I can't do eggs."

"Why are you up so early?"

I cracked all three eggs before I answered, "Couldn't sleep."

"So you naturally decided to make breakfast at five fifteen in the morning? Yeah, that makes perfect sense."

"Well it's better than sitting in my room doing nothing."

Logan sighed. Was Wade serious? Did he really have to look after _this_ kid? "Just keep it down okay? There's people sleeping."

"_Gabh mo leigseul_. I was just a little mad." Logan stared at me.

"What was that?"

I looked up from the pan. "Sorry. I was speaking Gaelic. I do it sometimes, I don't mean to it just kind of happens."

"Is English not your first language?"

"No, it is. I just speak Gaelic fluently and it pops out every now and then."

"Whatever. Night, kid." He started to leave the kitchen.

"Morning actually." I could hear him sigh. I looked back at the pan and smiled. "Fourth time's the charm."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Everyone," The Professor announced at breakfast about two hours later. "I would like you to meet the special guest that we have here today." He nodded at me and I stood up. "This is Andrea Hojem, and she'll be staying with us for a while."

"Hi," I said shyly and a few kids said, 'hi' back.

"She was actually nice enough to make us breakfast this morning."

"Thank you." They said monotonously.

"You're welcome." I sat back down and stared at my empty plate. I wasn't hungry.

"Are you not hungry?" The kid next to me asked. He was blue and had pointy ears like an elf. He looked so cool.

I shook my head. "No."

He held out a three fingered hand to me. "I'm Kurt Wagner." He had to be German; he pronounced his w's as v's.

I shook it without so much as reacting to his differences. "Andi Hojem."

"So what's your power?"

"Is that all anyone can ask around here?" I joked and he chuckled.

"It's just something nice to know."

"Well, I can control nature and the weather, I can heal, and I can teleport."

"I can teleport too!"

"That's so cool."

"I can't go too far though. I have to see where I'm going."

Now was the perfect opportunity to make friends. "If you want, I can help you with that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem."

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome." I smiled at him and he smiled back. "When do you want to do it?"

"How about this afternoon?"

"Okay, no problem. Do you want to meet me at the oak tree about one?"

"Sure."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to be making friends here? I'm mean you're not staying that long." J'onn appeared in my head and asked.

"It'll be fine." I thought back to him. "Don't worry so much."

"I can't **not** worry."

"It's so nice to know that you care."

"Don't flatter yourself."

"Ow J'onn, that one hurt."

"Just be careful."

"I'll try my best, but I can't make any promises."

"Andi-" J'onn warned.

"Well I can't."

"Try."

"I'll try."


	10. Chapter 10

"Okay, you ready Kurt?" We were sitting under the oak tree cross-legged holding hands. There was nothing going on between us, but if you didn't know what we were dong, it might have looked that way.

"I think so."

"Alright, first, pick a place that you want to go."

"Any place?"

I nodded. "Any where."

"I've always wanted to go to Central Park."

"That's good. Now picture and focus on Central Park." I watched as he closed his eyes. "Ready?" Kurt nodded. "Okay, teleport."

He did. I looked around and smiled. "Close, but no cigar."

"Oh!" He groaned. "We're in a parking lot."

"I said you were close. Look." I picked up a post card that was on the ground, forgotten. Poor post card.

He smiled. "Hello from Central Park." Is what it said, along with a picture of Robert Burns' statue.

"Wanna try again?" He nodded and we grabbed hands again. "Remember, breathing is an important component in concentrating."

He took a deep breath and teleported again. I smiled when we reappeared. He did it. "Kurt, open your eyes."

He did and smiled brightly. "This is Central Park?" I nodded. "It's beautiful."

"Yes it is. You wanna look around?"

"Absolutely." His face brightened and we got up from the ground to go explore. "Hey Andi, how come no one noticed us just pop out of nowhere?"

I smirked. "This is New York City, no one cares."

He laughed and we continued to walk down the stone path throughout the park. Kurt and I looked at all of the statues, and as we were passing Balto, he stopped and looked across from the dog. When I sensed that he was no longer next to me, I turned and saw him looking up at my face. My hair was shorter back then.

"You killed people?"

I looked down from that horrible statue in shame. "I had to."

"Why?" I looked up and was met with his puppy eyes. Oh God he had puppy eyes. Now I'm even more ashamed.

"They would've enslaved and killed everyone. Trust me, I wouldn't have done it otherwise. Please don't tell anyone." I begged.

He didn't even have to think about it. "Of course. Your secrets are safe with me."

"Thanks." I gave him a quick hug. "Hey, how about we get lunch? My treat."

He smiled. "Sure."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hey, Andi?" Kurt approached me in the living room after dinner. "Do you want to go to the movies with us tomorrow night?"

"Who's us?" I looked up from my knitting.

"Scott, Jean, Kitty, Rogue, Gambit and myself."

"Gambit and I don't get along very well."

"Please Andi?"

"Why? I'll only be the seventh wheel."

"Everyone wants to get to know you though."

"They can't just come up and talk to me?"

"They're a little intimidated because you're someone they don't know."

"And I'm not intimidated by them?"

"Just please come with us."

I sighed. "Fine."

"Yes! I can't wait to tell them."

"Ah, I would refrain from telling Gambit. He might change his mind about going if he knew I was."

Kurt nodded. "Good idea. I'll see you later."

"See ya." This place is so odd, I thought as I went back to my knitting. I didn't get very far when I was interrupted again.

"Andrea?" I looked up and came face to face with the Professor. Hey, that's a first.

"Yes, Professor?"

"I just wanted to know when you were planning your assault."

"That is such an ugly word. It's more of a rescue."

"Stay on topic."

"Sorry. Um, soon. Actually very soon." Not a second after I said that, my cell phone started ringing. Wade? "Hello?"

"Andi, it's Reed."

"What's wrong?" There was a terrible tone in his voice, like he was watching Death at work. That bastard.

"It's Frankie. She's giving birth, and the baby's killing her. But it's like she's burning."

"Look I'll be right there. Promise." I shut the phone. "Excuse me, Professor." I immediately focused on Reed and teleported right in front of him.

"Where's Frankie?" His eyes were wide and his face held the expression of broken innocence. I had never seen Reed like this.

"She's in there." He pointed to the hospital room behind us.

I barged in and was shocked at what I saw. Frankie was literally burning alive. "Oh my God." The extreme odor of burnt human flesh was almost too overpowering. I'm never going to forget that smell. She was screaming. It wasn't a labor scream though, it was a real-life Wilhelm scream. Johnny and Sue were practically crying, Ben was throwing up (BTW, it was a weird sight. Just picture rocks instead of liquid). I just stood there speechless. I didn't know what to do. Then I looked over at the four doctors who were trying to get the baby out and keep Frankie alive.

Come on, be Bruce, be Bruce. "Alright, Ginger!" I spoke to the red headed doctor with as much authority as I could muster. "Get fireproof gloves on now! You, get cold water. And when I say cold, I mean it better be an ice block!" I ordered the blonde doctor. When the two of them didn't move, I shouted even louder. "NOW! DO YOU WANT TO SAVE THEM BOTH OR NOT?" Then they ran to get prepared. "What are you? Interns? Get out!" The remaining two doctors left in fear of me.

"Andi?" Johnny left Sue's arms and came over to me. "She's gonna be okay, right?" Oh God, it's like Kurt's puppy face all over again.

I grabbed his hands and stared right into his eyes. "I'm going to do whatever I can to save her. I promise."

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have gone up in space." Tears streamed down his face faster.

"Oi," I put my hands on the sides of his face. "This is _not_ your fault." God I love his eyes; this is not the time for that! I yelled at myself. "And I told you, I'm gonna fix this." I was able to give him a quick and tight hug before the two doctors came in.

"All I could find were oven mitts."

"That's fine. Just continue with the delivery process. Blondie, make sure Frankie stays cold. If that baby comes out in as a ball of flames like I think it might," I lowered my voice and whispered into the blonde doctor's ear. "Then we're fucked." He understood. I don't know how, but he understood.

I went over to Frankie's stomach, which was turning black, and I placed my hands slightly above it. Tensing the muscles in my arm, I started to heal the burning flesh on her stomach. But it seems like that was all I could do.

"The baby's coming out!" Ginger yelled. "Holy shit!" He stared at the bundle of fire that was slowing making its way into the world.

As the baby was coming out, Frankie was burning faster which made absolutely no sense. "Come on!" I yelled at myself out loud. Why couldn't I heal her? "Heal damn it!" Tears started streaming down my face. No, Frankie was my friend.

"It's out! It's out!" Ginger exclaimed minutes later. He could only hold the baby for a few seconds before he had to hand it off to Johnny to keep his hands from burning.

And then, for no reason at all, Frankie caught on fire. It was like she exploded, but without the guts and blood. Her screams echoed in the room along with the baby's cry. Seconds after the baby was out, Frankie was no longer there. There was just a pile of ashes. She had literally burned to death. And no one did anything. Everyone in that room just watched. We watched Frankie writhe and scream and die. Then there was silence, even from the baby.


	11. Chapter 11

Professor Charles Xavier was sitting in his study, reading his favorite epic poem by Virgil, _The Aeneid_.

"Excuse me, Charles Xavier." He looked up to the same green man that had yelled at him two nights before.

"J'onn J'onzz, what a nice surprise." It wasn't really a nice surprise, but Charles isn't one for rudeness.

"Charles, would you watch out for Andrea, just for a few days."

"I watch out for all of my students."

"Andrea is not your student, she is mine. And all I ask is for you to give her a little extra attention for a few days."

"Why?"

"Because her friend just died, and I fear she will do something drastic to herself."

Charles was surprised. "Why would she do that?"

J'onn inwardly sighed, how could this man be so naïve? "When something happens to someone that Andrea cares about, she takes the blame and punishes herself as she sees fit. Why?" J'onn took the word right out of Charles' mouth. "Because she feels there is always something that she could have done to prevent it." He let Xavier absorb that for a second. "So will you make sure that she doesn't hurt herself?" He said that a little harsher than he should have.

"Yes."

"Thank you." J'onn didn't wait for Charles to even think about saying, 'you're welcome' before he turned intangible and flew up through the roof.

Charles put his middle and index fingers on his temple and searched for a mind in particular. "Logan."

"Yeah Prof?" Logan thought as he sat in the living room reading the paper.

"Have you seen Andrea Hojem lately?"

"Not since breakfast."

"Will you watch out for her? And when you see her, will you send her to my office immediately?"

"Sure. But why?"

"I just want to talk to her."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Thank you."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I'll take this one." I held the white marble urn like it was a child. It had the most beautiful pewter angel embracing the urn on it.

"A wonderful choice." The manager of Gotham Funeral Care said as he led me to the back of the store where I paid for the urn. "I am truly sorry for your loss, Miss Wayne."

"Thank you." I continued to hold the urn as I walked out of the store and into the nearest alley. There, I teleported back into Frankie's hospital room where the not-so-fantastic-at-the-moment four were awaiting my return. I was clutching the angel side of the urn towards me, and waited for Johnny to look up.

"I hope this is okay." I showed him the urn and more tears spilled from his eyes.

"It's beautiful." He choked. I motioned for him to come to me, and he followed me to the bed where her ashes still lied.

"If you have something to say, I'd say it now."

"I love you, Frankie. I always will." The baby started moving in his arms and curled herself closer to Johnny's chest. "I'll take care of her, I promise." He sobbed, and turned away from the bed.

I took the lid off of the urn and waved my hand in a gentle fashion. And tender wind passed by the bed and picked up her ashes. I led the trail down into the urn and placed the lid back on.

"What are you going to name her?" I asked Johnny who wouldn't even look at anyone but the baby.

"Frankie wanted to name her Anita."

"How about Anita Francine Storm?" I threw my two cents in.

He turned and looked at me. "I like that."

"Me too. Come on, let's get you guys home." Ben, Reed, and Sue got up from the chairs across the room and touched my shoulders as I grabbed Johnny's hand and teleported them back to the Baxter building.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Gambit was leaning against the side of the mansion that faced the small forest as he smoked the last cigarette in his current pack. He'd have to buy more the next time he went out. He took one long, final drawl from it before he thew it into the grass. After enjoying the taste of the smoke for a moment he blew it away and for no reason looked towards the forest. And that's when he saw me stalking into the slightly dark abyss.

"_Brève-Remplir_, wha' are y' doin?" he muttered before he followed me.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I wasn't thinking. I needed revenge, but the only person who I could get that particular satisfaction from was a twenty hour old baby. And I can't kill an infant. Especially not Johnny's infant. So the only other alternative was myself. I teleported from the Baxter Building twenty hours after Anita's birth, and ended up in the back of the mansion. I looked over at the forest on the side: it could be promising. So I started my journey towards it. As I got closer, I saw a foot and a half high stump with an ax sticking out. Now _that_ was promising. A minute later, my walk turned into a stalk and I grabbed the ax from the stump as I passed it and headed into the forest. I didn't really care how far I went, all that mattered was that I found the perfect tree. It had an ideal trunk shape and just looked beautiful.

And without thinking, I swung the ax at the tree. I wanted to feel the pain, I wanted to get rid of the horrible feeling I had. Now I understand why emo kids cut their wrists. I pulled the ax out and swung again at the same place. As the ax went deeper into the tree, a similar indentation appeared on my right side. I didn't really notice it until the third or fourth swing, and that was only because I felt something warm on run all the way down my leg. It was blood.

I looked up from the wound and swung again. This time, I actually felt like the ax was cutting into me, I screamed in a pain I thought I would never feel. It was like having a sword slowly making its way through your abdomen.

"Wha' d' hell!" Gambit yelled at me as he jumped between me and the tree.

"Back off Gambit." I growled and lifted the ax up, ready to swing again.

"Pu' d' ax down." He said calmly.

"Don't make me kill you."

"Y' wouldn't kill _moi_."

"Sure I would. I fulfilled my promise to Rogue, meaning you're fair game again."

He still didn't budge. "Wha happened? What made y' s' mad?"

"None of your God damned business; now get out of my way."

"_Non_."

"Gambit." I threatened.

He only crossed his arms and stood his ground. "If y' wan t' make somet'ing hurt, hurt _moi_, _non_ y'self."

"Why do you care?" A tear unknowingly fell from my eye when I said, 'care'.

Like he was really going to tell me his evil plan. "Gambit jus' do."

"But...why?" I don't like it when people I don't know personally start caring for my well-being.

He stared at me with a little compassion. "Why di' y' help Rogue when she wa' captured?" I didn't answer him and he smirked. "See? I's _non_ so easy t' come up wit an answer."

"Go away." More tears started to spill over. "Can't you let me mourn for five fucking minutes!"

He took a step closer. "Wha' happened?"

"Stop it!" I took several steps back to his one. "Leave me alone!"

"Wha' happened?" He said louder while taking another step.

"Nothing!"

"_Brève-Remplir _don lie t' _Gambit_!" He got even closer.

I stumbled back and fell trying to get away. This is like Mrs. State all over again. "GET AWAY!" I screamed, curling into a ball on the ground.

"Get away from her, Gambit." A deep voice growled behind me. "Can't ya see she don't wanna talk?"

"Dis doesn't concern y', Wolverine."

"It does now." He turned away from Gambit and looked down at the ground where I no longer was.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Oh God damn it!" I grabbed my side as I reappeared. "Heal already!"

"Andi?" I looked up to see the mask of Deadpool. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were at Xavier's."

"Something bad happened Wade. Something really bad." He picked me up from the ground, steadied me, and looked me straight in the eye.

"What happened?" He gave me that look that he never gives anyone.

"My friend died. And there was nothing I could do about it."

"You can't control who lives and dies. No matter how hard you try." Dude you've been whipped, the one voice said, are you even a man anymore? Back off, the other voice defended, it's good to care about others.

I started shaking my head and more tears fell. Stop crying in front of Wade! "But I was there. I was two inches from her, and I couldn't save her." I started sobbing.

Wade didn't really know what to do. It had been so long since he had cared about someone like this. And while he was thinking, he hadn't realized that he was hugging me. It was a natural reaction. When he finally noticed, he only held me tighter. He knew exactly what I was going through emotionally; he had gone through the same thing when his father died, except he kept everything inside, which is probably why he's half-way to crazy.


	12. Chapter 12

Weasel had no idea what was going on. Who was that girl? And why was Wade hugging her? Since when does Wade feel sad emotions?

"Ah, Wade-?"

"Shut up Weasel." Wade shot to the other man who was at his work bench. "Come on now," he said into my hair. "Stop your crying." When I wouldn't, he pulled me at arm's length and looked me in the eye again. "Hey, soldiers don't cry. Are you a soldier or not?"

Truth be told, I was a soldier. Thanks a lot J'onn. "I-I'm a soldier, sir!"

Okay, she wasn't supposed to say that Wade thought. "Alright soldier, I want you to report to Xavier's on the double."

"I can't do that sir."

"And why not?"

"I can't stand Gambit sir, he's trying to get under my skin."

"Don't let him, simple as that."

"Wade please don't make me go back."

"Our plan isn't done yet, Andi. I need you there." I was still reluctant to go. He got closer to me and whispered. "It's the only way we can take him down."

I pondered it for a quick minute. "Fine, but I'm not gonna be happy about it."

He smirked. "Never asked you to be."

"You are coming with me, right?"

"I'll meet you there as soon as he finishes the weapon."

I looked over at the geeky man with coke-bottle glasses. He actually had coke-bottle glasses. I know, what a nerd. "Who is he?"

"My buddy Weasel. He makes weapons for mercenaries. Or maybe it's just me."

"Just you." Weasel said over the small rectangle that was going to complete our mission.

"I feel so special." I smirked slightly at Wade's reaction and then it faded. "Hey, I'll meet you there in a day or so, okay?"

"Fine." I mumbled.

"Now get your butt back there."

I mock saluted him and teleported back.

"Who was she?" Weasel asked as he looked up from the weapon again.

"Her name's Andi Hojem. And she is a very important lady."

"She's just a kid Wade."

"No," Wade shook his head. "She's a lady. One that can brush anything off and keep going. Personally, I think she'd make a great mercenary."

"You want a girl of what – fifteen, to kill people for money? I thought you were turning over a slightly new leaf Wade."

"Alright, first off, she's eighteen. So she can do whatever the hell she wants. And second, she's my sidekick. Whatever she does, she'll be fantastic at it."

Weasel chuckled, but then his face turned serious. "You know, I'm really sorry Wade."

There was a loud boom outside of their base in Poland. Usually, they were New York City, but a part that Weasel needed was in Warsaw, and that particular company didn't ship. "What did you do?"

He looked up at Wade "I'm sorry man. He got to me first."

"Weasel," Another loud bang.

He tossed the rectangle to Wade. "It's not finished. You got to get outta here. He's coming."

Wade was about to say something, but a shiny black man about seven feet tall who looked about three hundred pounds (all muscle) with neon blue eyes broke through the wall.

"Hello Wade." Lance's distorted voice said.

"Yes, hello Wade. It's so nice to see you again." William Stryker stepped out from behind Lance with a stern face. "You know, it's really too bad you chose her side. Because you really were the perfect soldier." Suddenly, Stryker pulled out a gun from behind his back and pointed it at Wade. But this wasn't any ordinary gun, it was one that screwed with a person's mutant powers.

"Fuck me." Wade said to himself as Stryker pulled the trigger and he hit the button on his belt.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I reappeared back at Xavier's, and I was about to go back to my room but of course, something that I didn't quite expect stopped me.

"Oh my God! Are you like, alright?" This brunette with preppy clothes practically bounced up to me and looked at my side. I looked down surprised. Oh right, it was still bloody.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little misunderstanding is all." I lifted my shirt slightly to show her my unscathed side. I was that good.

"Hey, you're Andi right?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "Kurt told me about you! You're coming to the movies with us, right?"

"I'm pretty sure, why?"

"Do you like, have a car?

"Yes." I said uneasily.

"Can you like, drive one or two of us to the movies? Scott doesn't have enough room in his car."

"Sure."

"Great! We're going to be leaving in about fifteen minutes so, I'd change my shirt if I were you."

"Right, okay. I'll go change then." She left, bouncing, and I just teleported upstairs. I rummaged through the duffel bag next to my bed and pulled out a tank and sweatshirt. I quickly stripped off my bloody shirt and tank and put on my not so soiled clothes. This hoodie was not like my one before, this one was black and had a circled four on it. I got it last year when I lived with Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben.

From there, I teleported back to Dakota, grabbed my keys, got in the car and teleported back to the front of Xavier's mansion. I got out and was met with a whistle.

"Nice car." This tall kid with red sunglasses said as he admired the shine it had.

"Thanks, and you would be?"

"Scott Summers. And this is my girlfriend, Jean Grey." He motioned towards the red haired girl next to him.

"I'm Andi Hawkins." Like I was really going to give away my secret identity.

"How did you get this?" Scott was still ogling.

"My brother is a car salesman for Dodge."

"This isn't even on the market yet!" It was like he got a new puppy. Except, it was _my_ puppy. "Can I look under the hood?"

"Maybe later. Now how many people are going? Because I can only fit four others in my car."

"It's just us three, Kurt and Kitty, and Gambit and Rogue."

"Well, I can take either Rogue and Kitty or I can take Gambit and Kurt."

"Why can't you take one with their date?"

"Because I don't want any PDA in my new car."

"Understandable."

"So are you guys like, ready to go?" Kitty asked from behind me. I turned around and saw her with Kurt, and Rogue holding gloved hands with Gambit. Aw, how sweet.

"Yeah. Uh, Kitty and Rogue why don't you come with Jean and I and Gambit and Kurt can go with Andi."

"Why are we being split up?" Kurt asked.

"Because I don't like PDA." I answered for Scott. "Especially in my car."

Rogue smirked. "Are you sure about that one."

"What?" I was extremely confused.

She walked up to me with an even bigger smile. "Are you sure you don't approve of PDA?" her voice was just above a whisper.

I stared at her for a second until I understood to what she was referring. "You dirty dirty hooker!" I crossed my arms over my chest and grinned so big. "What did you see?"

Everyone was staring at the two of us wide eyed.

Rogue was still chuckling at my first comment. "The real question is, 'What didn't I see?'."

My face turned bright red and I covered one side with my hand. "Oh God."

She just laughed and Kitty interrupted. "Uh guys, if we don't leave soon, we're gonna miss the movie."

"Right then!" I exclaimed and turned back towards my car. "Boys, if you please." I opened the back side door for them and they slid in. "I'm just gonna follow you Scott, so lead the way."

He nodded and everyone else piled into his car. I got into the driver's seat and turned the engine over. "I hope you guys like Lady Gaga." I turned on the CD player and grabbed my aviators from the dashboard. They make me feel cool when I drive.

I pulled out of the driveway after Scott and followed about twenty feet behind him the whole way.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"A drive-in? Are you serious?" I asked no one in particular. But good old Gambit answered.

"_Oui_, drive-in's are very romantic."

"Well you better not get romantic in this car Gam-Gam. Cause if you do, I will break your legs." He just chuckled.

We paid our way in and got two decent parking spots. I tuned the radio to the correct station and reclined in my seat as the couples regrouped and got snacks.

"_Welcome to WDRV! The show will begin in about ten minutes so get your snacks and get comfortable..." _I had closed my eyes and was going to take a nice nap when someone sat in the passenger's front seat.

"Wha's wrong _Brève-Remplir_?"

I didn't open my eyes. "It's been a long day Gambit. Please just go away." Why don't you talk to him, it seems like he wants to listen. No way! He'll only use it against us. Oh god, I'm turning into Wade.

"Why don y' tell _moi _about i'." Please, just go away.

"You know, I don't need a therapist. And besides, you came here with Rogue, why don't you go be with her."

"_Chére_ is gettin food wit Kurt and Kitty."

I sighed, opened my eyes, and rolled my head to face him. "Look, I haven't gotten sleep in almost two days, please let me have this one nap.

"Gambit jus want t' know whas wrong."

You might as well just tell him, I mean he's being nice and all. Fine, but I'm gonna be happy about it. "My friend died."

"Sorry."

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter, a 'sorry' isn't going to bring her back."

He was going to say something in rebuttal, but Rogue, Kitty and Kurt had come back. "Gambit will talk t' _Brève-Remplir _la'er." He got out of the car and joined Rogue and everyone else as they made themselves comfortable lounging on top of Scott's convertible. I closed my eyes again and fell asleep before the movie even started.

"_Come on Andi! It'll be fun." Wade dragged me into the Fortune Teller's tent at the street fair about noon on Sunday, June 30th._

"_NO! It's fake, Wade! It's fake! You know this!" I dug my heels into the pavement, hoping to delay the inevitable._

"_It. Will. Be. Fun!" He gave one last tug and pulled me into the tent and forced me to it down in one of the chairs across from the 'Soothsayer'. "Hello." Wade had this huge smile on his face as he sat next to me and my frown._

"_Hello." She looked like she could've been a Vegas showgirl about thirty years ago, not gonna lie. "My name is Madame Nura." You've got to be kidding me. "Please, what is your name?"_

"_I'm Wade Wilson, and this is Andrea Hawkins." Thanks for not blowing my cover Wade._

"_Don't you mean Hojem?" The woman smirked as I stared at her hard._

"_It's Hawkins." I practically spat at her._

"_Of course it is. Now, you would to know the outcome of your mission, I presume?"_

_Wade nodded and smiled like a little girl while I continued to suspect her of fraud. But then again, she looked oddly familiar._

"_That would be great. Wouldn't it, Andi?"_

"_Sure." I barely answered._

"_Well, let's see what's in the cards, shall we?" She pulled out a deck of tarot cards from the pocket in her deep purple silk robe and shuffled them. The first card she pulled out was of a group of people with not so nice looks on their face. "Conspiracy." The next was of a man with a dagger in his back. "Betrayal."_

"_What, are we in _Julius Caesar_?"_

_She stared at me with cold eyes. "Commentary is not necessary." She went back to turning over cards._

"_Behave." Wade mouthed at me._

"_Death." Madame Nura said forcefully enough to get our attention back onto her._

_I'd had enough. "I'm tired of death." I got up from my chair and Wade grabbed my arm._

"_One more card, please?" He asked the Fortune Teller._

"_Fine." She turned over one last card. "Friendship."_

"_Let's go."_

_I pulled Wade out of the tent while Madame Nura called after us. "Remember my words!" She was laughing._

I jumped awake and looked up to the screen to see Sandra Bullock hit Bill Pullman in the face with a cabinet door. Ah, _While You Were Sleeping_, such a nice and romantic film. So Bill Pullman groaned about his nose, and then I heard something. Now I've seen this movie dozens of times and I do not remember a flood of curses during that scene. Apparently neither had the others. They were all looking into the bushes behind us. I too looked back and knew instantly what that strange silhouette meant.

I quickly got out of my car and ran into the bushes. Kitty ran after me.

I knelt down next to the thing that was making the silhouette. "What happened? I left you for what, two hours?"

Wade chuckled and then coughed. "Those...fuckers shot me with that gun."

"How long ago?" I gently poked at the hole in his chest.

"Two hours." He gave me an evil stare. "Do you know how many times I had to press that goddamned button to get here?"

"Oh my God!" I head Kitty shout. She was about to go back to the others when I grabbed her leg and stopped her.

"Kitty, I need you here right now." She slowly came back and I took off my shirt, leaving me in the tank top.

"Why?"

"When the time comes, I need you to use that to put pressure on my wound."

"Why?" she took the hoodie from me nervously.

"Because neither Wade nor I will be able to. Can you do that for us?"

Her eyes were extremely wide as she nodded.

Without another word, I clapped my hands together, rubbed them, and placed them gently over Wade's wound. I tensed my muscles, and his wound slowly got smaller while one appeared on my stomach. My eyes turned bright green and my hair started to get longer when his wound was about halfway healed. But suddenly it started to shoot sparks (Uh, WTF?), and I was shot into the bumper of my viper.

"Andi?" Wade asked.

"Stryker must have anticipated this. I can't fully heal you." Kitty came over to me and put the sweatshirt on my stomach. "Come on, I gotta get up." Kitty tried to pick me up, but she apparently couldn't do that and keep pressure on the wound.

"I've got her." Kurt came up behind me and helped me up. "Gambit, get him."

Kurt helped me stand and Gambit was trying not to hurt Wade. "I've got to get him back to the school."

"Then we'll leave." Scott said out of the blue.

"No, y'all enjoy the date." I took a quick glance at Wade and his glare told me, 'don't even think about it.' "I'll see you back at school."

"But we all can't fit in Scott's car." Wow, fantastic observation Ginger.

"Kurt can take Kitty back."

"No, no no no no. The institute is too far away!" Kurt protested.

"Oi! Have a little faith in yourself. You got to New York didn't you?"

"Yeah but-"

"Kurt," I grabbed his shirt and pulled his face to mine. "I need you to do this for me. Please."

"Okay," He nodded.

"Uh, hello? Dying over here." Gambit hit Wade in the back of the head.

"Thanks Gambit. I got him." I went over to them like nothing happened and picked Wade up. But he wasn't in my arms for long. "Dear God Wade! Please lose some weight."

"You know it's all muscle."

"Yeah, but you're still heavy."

"I'll help." Scott came over and took Wade's feet while I lifted from the arms. We laid him down in the back seat of the viper and I got into the driver's seat.

"You aren't going to drive like a maniac, right?" Wade asked cautiously.

"Wade, I'm probably going to be going twenty miles over the speed limit so that I can get you back before you bleed to death. But other than that, yeah I'll be safe."


	13. Chapter 13

"Ow," I said to myself as I was shocked again. I hadn't really been able to do anything to help heal Wade's wound since we got back to the Institute. This was the third time I've tried to heal him, and it barely helps at all.

"This is so fascinating! Terrible yes, but fascinating!" Hank McCoy was so excited when he heard Wade's story and saw him. "And you! You can heal _others_? This is just so...extravagant!"

"Yes, this is all very amazing, Doctor. But I need answers. Why can't I heal him? Why hasn't he died yet?"

"Way to be sensitive, Andi." Wade said as he just lay on the bed.

"Shut up, _Winston_."

"No you shut up, _Lotus_." Wade countered.

"Don't speak Greek to me!"

"Enough!" Hank shouted at us, and we immediately fell silent like children. "I don't know why you can't heal him. I don't know why he hasn't died yet. I haven't done any tests."

"Doing tests on him is like feeding a dead person. It's redundant. It does not matter."

"Why do think it doesn't matter?"

"Because this-" And then I thought. My brain was going so fast it would've given Reed a run for his money. And then I got it. "It's because his healing factor isn't a natural mutation!"

"Excuse me?" Hank was confused as ever. Wade just lay there like a slug.

"Don't you see? That's the whole reason why he sided with Stryker."

"I'm still lost." I thought Hank was supposed to be smart.

I smiled. "Wade has cancer. The healing factor was meant to keep him alive." I smiled even bigger. "And that's exactly what it's doing."

"I don't exactly follow."

"Neither do I." Wade said.

"Okay, look. The gun that he was shot with was meant, not only to kill, but really to destroy all hope. What it does, is it creates a hole wherever you happen to be shot. There are certain chemicals in the round that actually neutralize one's mutant abilities. And even more mind blowing, is that that gun is designed to pretty much cut a hole straight through you body, leaving a little tunnel. Wade's artificial healing factor is preventing it." So this is what it feels like to be smarter than everyone else, like Reed.

Wade quickly sat up. "Is it gonna wear off?"

"Yeah, it should a few hours after being shot."

"How do you know?" Hank asked.

"Look at his stomach." He smirked and Wade smiled and started poking at his healed (Well, sort of. It's still scarred from the whole cancer thing.) stomach.

"This healing factor thing is so cool." Wade's face was practically beaming.

"And he's the adult in the relationship." I mumbled to Hank who just laughed.

Wade suddenly threw himself off of his bed in the infirmary, "My God I'm hungry."

"Uh, Wade?" I grabbed his shirt from the chair and went after him. It did no good. He got to the hallway and stopped right in front of Ororo Monroe.

"Hey." Wade was thoroughly attracted.

"Hello." And so was she.

"I'm Wade. Wade Wilson." He held out his hand.

"Ororo Monroe." She took his hand and he raised it up to his lips and kissed the back of her hand gently. She just blushed.

Okay, this relationship could not happen. I thought soldiers didn't get attached. "Wade," I warned.

"Yes, dear?" He didn't look away from Ororo.

"Behave." I threw his shirt at him and went back to Hank McCoy.

"Andi, how did you know all of that about the gun?"

I sighed. "Because I did a very detailed report on it." He was still very confused. Which, I really couldn't blame him. "I work in the Applied Sciences department at Wayne Enterprises. That gun was a gift from the military to Stark Industries. And Mr. Stark gave it to Mr. Wayne when our companies 'merged' as a peace offering. Mr. Wayne then sent the gun down to me so that I could dissect it and understand it. I wrote up the report, gave it to Mr. Wayne, and four months later the gun was gone. And now, it has resurfaced after two months."

"And what do you plan to do about this gun?"

"Well, I really plan to do nothing unless I have to. If I have to, I have this," I pulled out the small rectangle from my hoodie pocket. "This will completely neutralize the gun. And when I say completely, I mean it will never work again."

"And why won't you use it? That could kill us."

I balled my fists and put them on the sides of my head. "Erg! Because it might help Rogue."

His eyes widened. "Really?"

"Might. See, if I completely neutralize the gun then the chemical that in turn neutralizes one's mutant powers is basically...nothing. It's just useless matter. That chemical might even help you, it might help everyone here. It's just that important."

"Interesting. Very interesting indeed."

"Isn't it?" I was smirking and Hank in turn smirked back.

"How old are you? Sixteen, seventeen?"

"Eighteen, actually." Yeah, I lied to Charles. Get over it.

"So you're done with school then?" Hank had this look in his eyes that he wanted me to join the X-Men.

"Actually I have one more school year yet." No lie.

"Really?"

"Yes, when I was a kid I moved around a lot, and somewhere between all of the hullabaloo I missed second grade and I had to take it again."

"You know, I would love to hear more about you." Charles put him up to this I just know it.

"Thanks, but I don't need a shrink."

"Actually, it wouldn't hurt to talk to someone." J'onn threw his two cents into my head.

"Shut up, J'onn."

"Excuse me?" Oh God, I said that out loud didn't I?

"Nothing." Yes.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hey, Andi?" Wade whispered from the other bed in the room.

"What?" I opened my eyes enough to see that it was about two in the morning.

"When you told me about that Shannon State woman and Jameson, were you telling the truth?" I opened my eyes completely and sat up to see Wade in the same position.

"Why?"

"Because I'm gonna kill them both with my bare hands."

I was silent for a minute or so before I said, "I have never lied to you. Ever."

"No one does that to my Andi and gets away with it." He mumbled as he laid back down.

I chuckled ever so slightly as I also laid back down. "Wade?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you lie to me about what happened to your Dad?"

He took his own minute to answer. "I have never lied to you. Ever."

After a few minutes, "Wade?"

"What?"

"I'm scared."

"About what?"

"I don't want this to end like the War did."

"Hey," He said in the most soothing voice he could. "You're not going against an entire race by yourself, you're going against a handful of people with me and maybe a few others. We've got this, hands down."

"I thought the same way last year."

"You know that when we're fighting together, we are unstoppable. We could take Stryker and his cronies with our hands and legs tied. There's nothing to worry about."


	14. Chapter 14

"So how was the date?" I asked Rogue and Kitty as we all sat in their room. They had invited me to hang out with them at the mall, and Rogue and I were waiting for Kitty to finish getting ready.

"It was nice." Rogue smiled.

"It was way more than nice." Kitty drawled as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Kurt is such a good kisser."

"Ew!" Rogue exclaimed as laughed.

"Oh, get off it Rogue! Let the girl have a little fun. And if Kurt's having fun too, then it's a party."

"You're not helping my cause." Rogue said through clenched teeth.

"Never said I was going to. You just assumed." Kitty and I were laughing.

"Whatever, are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, let's go." Kitty grabbed her purse, and the three of us started for the garage. We walked by the kitchen and I took a quick glance. I smirked when I saw Wade and Ororo having coffee together at the island in the kitchen.

He saw us pass the doorway, and his eyes met mine. "Behave." I mouthed to him, and he just smiled.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Oh my God!" Kitty practically squealed as Rogue stepped out of the dressing room in a tight fitting black dress. "Rogue, you look hot!"

"Well?" She asked me.

I nodded and smiled. "You look very nice, Rogue."

"Oh come on, she looks hot." Kitty said trying to get me to agree.

"Where I come from, 'very nice' is just as good as 'hot'."

"Uh huh, and where's that?" Kitty obviously didn't believe me.

There's really no use fighting. "Rogue, you look hot." Rouge blushed profusely and quickly changed back into her normal clothes.

"You're turn." Kitty pushed me into the dressing room and threw a dress in with me. I changed into it, and looked at myself in the mirror. I'm not one for dresses, but this one wasn't too bad: It was a simple black dress with a v-neck, a white strap right below the bust, (as a plus) it hugged my curves nicely, and it billowed out slightly just above my knees. But there was one problem: I forgot my under armor.

"Come on, Andi!" Both Kitty and Rogue exclaimed.

"I'm not coming out." Not with my secret identity exposed.

"Andi, we want to see what you look like." Kitty said.

"I don't have any cover up on." I mumbled into the door.

"Make-up isn't that important-"

"It's not that kind of cover up Kitty." Rogue murmured to her. Face palm.

"Oh." She pulled her cell phone from her pants pocket and slid it under the door of the dressing room. "Take a picture for us." I took a quick one from the mirror, slid the phone back to Kitty, and got back into my jeans and my long sleeved black shirt with a yellow Batman symbol on it. You can just guess where I bought that.

"You need to buy that!" Kitty squealed when she saw the picture.

"Seriously Andi, you have to." Rogue agreed.

"Only if you guys buy the ones you tried on."

"Let's do it." Kitty's eyes glowed.

This was actually kind of exciting. I mean, even when I would go shopping with Frieda and Daisy, I would never buy anything, I would just offer to hold the bags and stand there awkwardly.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Alright." I smiled and that caused both Rogue and Kitty to smile.

"So what do you guys want for lunch?" Rogue, Kitty and I stared the food court and all its glory.

"I don't know." Both Kitty and I said in unison.

"Greek?" Kitty suggested.

"Pizza?" Rogue asked.

"Chinese?" I threw my two cents in.

"We could each get our own food." Rogue thought out loud.

"And whoever gets their food first gets a table." Kitty said.

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

So we went our separate ways, and Kitty got us a table near one the seven flat screen televisions that were scattered throughout the food court.

"Okay, you guys have spent the last few days trying to get to know me, I want to know about you guys."

Kitty and Rouge looked at each other and Kitty spoke first. "I was just a normal kid in Deerfield, Illinois. When I was thirteen I started getting massive headaches, and I got my mutant powers. The first time I phased through something was in the middle of the night, and I fell about halfway through the second floor of my house and I was caught: half of me in my bedroom, and half of me in the living room downstairs." She chuckled at the memory. "The next day Professor Xavier showed up and brought me to the Institute."

"It sounds normal." I smiled. "What about you, Rogue?"

"I don't feel comfortable talking about it."

"Fair enough."

"You know," Rogue just thought of. "We still don't know anything about you."

"Yes you do."

"Well _I_ do, but Kitty doesn't."

"Fine. I was born in Gotham City, yes it's a real place, my mother died giving birth to me and my dad killed himself soon after. I was put into a various number foster homes in every state. I met my permanent foster family when I was a sophomore, and...that's about it." That's the short short version.

"Well, when did you get your powers?"

Should I tell them? If I lie, Rogue's gonna call me on it. "I was about a month old."

"That's like way too early to be natural." Kitty said.

"It's not a natural mutation."

"Then how did you get it?" Rogue inquired.

"I inhaled this gas-" My ring tone (_Noots_ by Sum 41) cut me off. "Hojem." I answered.

"Are you watching the news?" Wade's voice came through.

I looked around at the televisions and was surprised at the fact that our television was the one with the news on it. "Holy Mother of God." I stared wide eyed at Lance in his granite form tearing through the city and running for the mall.

Kitty and Rogue look at the television as well and got the same look on their faces. "Wade, where are you?"

"I'm on my way to the mall. And you?"

"I'm already here."

"Get started without me." He hung up and I turned to the two girls who were watching Lance destroy everything in his path.

"I need you guys to get everyone out of here." I brought Rouge and Kitty out of their trance.

"We're not leaving you." Rogue said definitely.

"Rogue, you know I can't die. You guys need to save those that can."

"You can't defeat him by yourself." Kitty tried to reason with me.

"Wade and I are the only ones who can. You guys have to get these people out because Lance will be here in a few minutes. Go!" They left the table and started to rally people while I ran the other way to try to cut Lance off. There's no way that I could face him looking like this though. Gotta find something, gotta find something. And then I passed one of the weirdest stores ever: Toby's Halloween Haven. I wish I was kidding. Coincidentally, in the store window was a mannequin with a replica of my early Arbora costume. I ran in, quickly changed into one of the ones that were on the shelf for sale, and ran out before the guy at the counter knew I hadn't paid.

I ran to the Sears entrance about twenty yards away in a hunter green spandex body suit (with no sleeves) with knee high green converse shoes and a green mask that covered only my eyes. It's been a long time since I wore this. I came to the outside and saw Lance stomping around the parking lot, picking up cars and throwing them at other cars.

I had to get his attention somehow. And then I got it: Lady Gaga. Lance absolutely hated Lady Gaga. I teleported the stereo from my house and the CD from my viper. I set it up and pressed play. _Just Dance_ started to play and I turned the volume up as loud as it could go so that Lance could hear.

He heard it. Lance had stopped playing with the cars and turned towards me with an angrier-than-usual glow in his eyes. "Andi!" He growled.

"Hello cowboy." Lance barely waited for me to address him before he yelled and ran towards me.

I waved my right arm and one of the trees that were scattered in the parking lot's medians popped out of the ground and wrapped itself around Lance's legs. He fell, but that didn't stop him from crawling towards me.

"KILL ANDI! ANDI EVIL!" Lance shouted at me.

"What did you say?" Wade accused me as he appeared out of nowhere.

"I think it was the joint effort of us leaving him." I threw another tree at Lance which tried to anchor him.

"I don't think that's going to work." Wade said as I made the grass from one of the medians grow long enough to wrap around him and start to drag him back to its place of origin.

"Then by all means, you do it." Wade pulled out two of his eight guns and started to attack Lance's upper body. This happened every time we had to round up Lance: I would get him on the ground, and then Wade would shoot him up till he went back to normal.

But unfortunately, Wade was right. Soldiers shouldn't get attached. His mind was elsewhere, and he messed up. Wade let himself in Lance's reach, he got picked up, and basically got snapped in half. All I heard was the snapping of Wade's spine and his scream. That was enough.

"YOU FUCKER!" I shouted at him.

"Andi, keep calm." J'onn cooed in my ear.

"_No,"_ I thought as my eyes glowed bright green. It wasn't just the iris like before, this was the entire eye, cornea and all. _"No one messes with my sidekick and gets away with it."_

"Aw, did I make little Andi upset?" Lance's distorted voice said with perfect diction. That must have been something that him and Stryker had been working on.

"How fucking dare you!" The beautiful blue sky had turned a terrifyingly dark gray and large and dangerous bolts of lightning struck the ground around us. "All we did was try to help." My own voice had grown deeper and more frightening. The vines on my arms peeled off and started to wrap themselves around Lance's arms and legs, trying to keep him contained. All the while and moving my arms in crazy motions and even more trees and little flowers and grass covered Lance and started squeezing. When that didn't revert him back to his human self, I created the largest lightning bolt I had ever done and hit him with over one hundred thousand volts. Thank the good Lord that that did the trick because I don't think I could do that again if I tried.

The kid that I once looked up to fell limp onto the ground, my "plant zombies" receding back into the medians and/or onto my arms. I walked over to him, and pulled his face to mine. "Think of this as euthanasia rather than murder." And with that, I snapped his neck. That was where my power high ended.

My eyes went back to their chocolate brown, and I fell on top of Lance's dead body. I was practically comatose. I hate it when I go IDDQD.

"Okay Andi," Wade's soft voice echoed in my head. "I know you're tired, but we need to get you out of here."

Unconsciously, I teleported Wade, myself, and Lance back to the Institute. In fact, I hadn't even done it. J'onn was actually controlling my head, my actions. Wade was holding me like he did back...was it only a week ago?

"Mr. Wilson?" Wade looked up to see J'onn standing before him.

"Who are you?" He asked as he held me even more protectively.

"My name is J'onn J'onzz. I am a very good friend of Andrea. But I need to borrow her for a few minutes."

"Borrow?"

"Yes. Since she is a little indisposed at the moment, she can't get rid of his body. So I will." His eyes glowed gold and my body raised and stood up. "I promise that I will bring her back in a few minutes."

"How can I trust you?" Wade snarled.

"You can't. But you have to know that I would never let anything happened to her." Not to my J'orah he thought.

"Five minutes." Wade threatened.

"Five minutes." J'onn agreed. He made me teleport Lance, him and me to the cliff where I first met Lance. J'onn made me raise my arms and then lower them; that controlled the roots of the trees around the cliff to grab Lance's dead body and they dragged him down into the earth. When the deed was done, J'onn made us teleport back to the Institute where Wade was waiting. J'onn let my mind go, and I fell limp in Wade's arms once more.

"Let her sleep, and everything will be fine."

"I know what to do with her. We've been through something like this before." Then J'onn went intangible and flew away.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Wade saw J'onn and I leave and was immediately hugged. "Wade!" Ororo held him so tightly. "When I saw the news, I was so scared. I thought you were dead."

He had no emotion on his face and he didn't hug her back like he would have. He actually put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her off of him. "We can't do this."

"Do what?"

"Our relationship can't happen." His voice was so cold.

Her eyes grew wide. "Why?"

"Because when soldiers get attached, they make mistakes." He grew angry. "That's why everything got so fucked up!" He hadn't yelled at Storm before, hadn't even thought about it. "I was thinking of you, and I got too close." She looked as though she were going to cry.

"I-I..." Ororo didn't know what to say. She thought that Wade was the caring person that he seemed to be.

"Just go." Wade gave her a look that said, 'I didn't want to be with you anyway'. She turned and left, giving a small cry as she ran back inside.

"You are the biggest asshole," both the white and yellow personae said.

"How could you do that to her?" The white one said.

"Can't you see that she actually cares about you? How many people care about you? Two? Three?" The yellow one yelled at him.

"Shut. Up." He mumbled to himself. Two second later J'onn reappeared with me, let me out of my 'trance', and Wade carried me back into the Institute and set me down in our room.


	15. Chapter 15

_I was in the living room, doing my homework like I usually would every night. Ms. State was great. She had given me a home, clothes, food, and an education. What more could a lowly pickpocket like me ask for? Lance was wrong, this is good. I can finally stay in one place._

"_Andi!" I head Ms. State shout as she came through the door. "Andi! I wanna talk to you." Why was she slurring her words? I stood at attention and waited as she showed herself. "We'll talk in my room." I nodded and started up the stairs as she let a man into the house._

_I waited in her room for a minute or so before the man came in without Ms. State. "Hello, Andi. I'm Jameson. Would you like to play a little game with me?"_

"_I'm supposed to be waiting for Ms. State."_

"_She won't mind."_

"_Then sure."_

_He smiled a devilish smile. "Good. Now why don't you lie on the bed, close your eyes, and stay perfectly still. Can you do that for me?"_

"_Okay." I did as I was asked, and waited for something to happen. The next thing I knew, he was taking off my pants. "What are you doing?" I said loudly as I tried to get away from his hands._

"_I told you to stay perfectly still!" he gripped my arms and pulled me back down to him. I tried to scream but Jameson took one of his hands and covered my mouth._

_And then, he caused me the greatest pain I had experienced in all of my six years of life._

Out of reflex, I screamed and practically jumped out of my skin. Of course, Wade was at my side in an instant. He tried to give me a hug, but I slapped him off. And then I saw that it was him, and I gave him the tightest hug I had ever given him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I said into his shoulder.

"Shh," He just held me tighter and started to rub soothing circles on my back. "It's okay, it's okay. Wade's gotcha."

Then the door opened and Ororo, Logan, and the Professor appeared in the doorway. "Is everything alright? We heard a scream." Ororo said to Wade as she stared at him, still hurt from before.

"Yeah, I had a pretty bad nightmare." Wade said. "Andi here was just comforting me."

"It sounded like a girl's scream." Logan growled.

"Well you of all people should know Logan that I do in fact scream like a girl." Wade's gaze was hard and cold enough to get Logan off the subject.

"Why don't we leave them alone." The Professor said, sensing the extreme tension between Wade, Logan, and Ororo. "It seems Andrea has more comforting to do." The Professor was the only one who looked at me instead of Wade.

When the three of them left, and closed the door behind them, Wade pulled away from me, "You okay now?"

"Yeah. Mostly. Why'd you say it was you?"

He thought about telling me the truth, but then decided not to. He just smiled. "Can't let you have all of the attention."

"Hey, um...I'm gonna go into town and get my hair cut." It had grown like another foot from the power trip. "Do you wanna come?"

"No, I'm good. I'm just gonna stay here."

"You sure? Cause there's a lot of tension between you, the weather witch, and Wolvie." Wade's face hardened a little. "Tell me what's going on with you."

"I just...I yelled at her." He shook his head.

"Oh, Wade. Why'd you do that?" My voice was just above a whisper.

"I don't know! It's just, I was thinking of her and I got snapped in half, and then you had to go all DOOM on his ass. I just blamed everything on her."

I put my hands on his shoulders and looked into his sad eyes. "I'm gonna go and get my hair cut, and when I come back, I expect the chi in this house to be as calm and inviting as it was when we first got here. Meaning, go apologize to her!" I grabbed a pair of pants, under garments, and a long sleeved shirt from the duffel bag at the end of my bed and headed into the bathroom. I took a quick shower and when I came out all dressed, Wade was talking on my cell phone.

"Look, I don't know why she didn't call you. Sir, do not yell at me." He sounded quite offended. When he saw me he handed the phone to me. "Your boyfriend is maaaaaaaaad."

I rolled my eyes. "Hello?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO? AND HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS?" Johnny's voice screamed from the phone.

"We are friends." I had to stay calm, but if I flew off the wire, everything would just get worse. "And what supposedly did I not tell you?"

"WHY DID YOU NOT TALK TO ME AFTER YOU KILLED SOMEONE ON LIVE TELEVISION!"

"Because I just woke up. Now if you don't lower your voice, I will hang up."

I heard him take a deep breath. "Sorry. But what were you thinking? I thought you were done with this phase!"

"Phase?" Now it was my turn to be offended. "Look, my life is a little busy at the moment. So I'll have to call you back." And I hung up.

"Wow, I didn't know you could be so mean to him." Wade teased.

"Shut up." I pulled my hair into a ponytail. "Call if you get into trouble."

"Yup." And I teleported into an alley. I walked out and found the nearest open hair salon. It was almost eight o'clock at night, and I found one that stayed open until nine.

"Can I help you?" The woman with spiky short maroon hair at the front desk asked.

"Yeah, I just want an adult haircut." I pulled my wallet out from my back pocket and pulled out a twenty.

"No coloring, no highlights?"

"No, just a normal adult haircut."

"Twelve dollars." I handed her the twenty, and she gave me eight dollars change. "How short do you want it?" She asked as she led me to her chair.

"I want my hair to be an inch long."

"Why? You have such beautiful hair." She ran her fingers through it.

"I just like it short." She accepted the answer and cut my hair. When she was finished, just as she took the smock off, my phone rang again. I sighed as I answered it. "Hojem."

"Andi, is Dad with you?" Virgil's voice came through.

"No. Why?"

"It's just that Sharon and I haven't heard from him in hours, he's not at the Center or anywhere. He's not in Dakota."

It barely took a second for me to understand. "That bastard." I mumbled.

"Andi?"

"Virgil, I will get him back."

"From who?" Oh, that's right. He thought I was in Malibu.

It's time to let him in, at at least a little bit. "A very bad man."

"I am not a five year old."

I sighed. "Virgil, this man is one of the most dangerous men that I know of. He will shoot anyone who doesn't say 'yes sir' to him."

"Sounds like an asshole." The hairdresser said as she swept up.

I moved outside of the shop. "Andi, if that man has our dad, then I'm going after him."

"Virgil, you need to stay out of this. We have a new directive. I need you, Sharon, and Trina to get inside the house and stay there. Call Bruce and have him stay with you. If anyone can protect you, he can."

"Andi we can't just stop our lives-"

"Give me two days okay! Just two days. I will bring Dad back in two days. Promise." I looked up from the ground and saw a familiar figure walking towards me.

"And what if you don't?"

"Then give me another two days. I **will** see you soon." I hung up on him as that familiar figure came upon me.

"I assume we understand each other." William Stryker said coolly.

"You do realize that you just signed your own death certificate."

"Keep threatening me and Trina won't make it home from work tomorrow."

I stared him down. "Keep threatening _me_, and I'll rip out your heart."

He shook his head and sighed. "Tomorrow's going to be a rough day for Trina. Then Sharon, then Virgil."

"What do you want from me, William?" My voice laced with pure rage.

He smirked that one sided smirk of his. "Charles Xavier."

"I can't take you to him." Liar liar pants on fire.

"Really? Because this picture," he pulled out a photograph of Kitty, Rogue and I at the mall earlier from his suit coat pocket. "Seems to say otherwise."

I stared at him, seeing nothing but fury. "Why do you want Xavier?"

"You know what to do to find the answer." With that said, he started to walk away. Reluctantly, I followed.


	16. Chapter 16

"Storm?" Xavier started as he and her sat in the kitchen that night.

"Yes, Charles?"

"Have you seen Andrea today?"

She shook her head. "Not since this morning. Why?"

"I just haven't been able to sense her all day."

Her voice had a little edge when she said, "She's probably with Wilson."

"Burning bridges a little early in the relationship are you?"

She obviously knew where he was going. "He said we couldn't be together."

"Do you know why?"

She shook her head as she said, "He yelled something about getting too close and screwing up. I don't know what it means."

"It might have been guilt, you know." She looked at him with question. "Mr. Wilson cares about Andrea a great deal. And to make her perform such an act as murder because of his mistake, it could have eaten him up inside, and he blew up at you because you were the one he was thinking of."

"I just don't know, Charles."

"Ororo," She looked up from the tea she was nursing, for it was unusual for him to call her by her first name. "I understand it's only been two days, but Mr. Wilson likes you." He saw that was still skeptical. "Would he have been thinking of you if he didn't?" She smiled and then looked up to the person in the doorway.

"Wade?"

"Ororo," Wade was one of the few people she allowed call her by her first name. "I've been thinking about what to say to you all day, and I didn't come up with anything good." That comment made the two of them chuckle. "But I am sorry, and that's not easy for me to say. I just...I don't know what was going through my head, I was so mad..." He trailed off and then thought for a second. "But that's no excuse. I shouldn't have yelled at you, I mean I barely deserve to talk to you after what I did. And if you could forgive me, I would be eternally grateful." That's better, the white persona said.

Storm's eyes were slightly wider than usual, and she smiled. "I think I can do that."

He sighed, that's one straw off his back. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"

She smiled. "Of course not."

He smiled as well and took a seat at the kitchen table next to her. Neither of them noticed that Charles had left them alone.

* * *

The Professor had taken himself back to his office and sat, contemplating on what he could do to find me. "Maybe Cerebro will be able to give me a general idea-"

"Who're you looking for Charles?" I spooked him. He hadn't seen me standing by the bookcase.

"You, actually. Where have you been?"

"A bad place. Look Charles, I need a favor. A very big favor."

"What?"

"I need you to come with me, but you can't tell your X-men where we are."

"Why not?" I came out from the shadow I was in and he saw that I was dressed like Wade had been when he came here after he was injured. Except the red and black were switched.

"Because if I don't show up with you, Stryker will kill my dad. If I show up with you and your X-men follow us, he'll kill my dad. But if you come with me, and the X-men don't come, he'll be spared long enough for me to get both of you out."

"And then what do you propose we do?" Was he really going to go through with this?

I shrugged, "I'm gonna do what I do best."

He thought for a minute before he said, "I will go, if you tell Wade."

"What? Why?"

"He's your sidekick, and he has a right to know."

I sighed. "Fine." I went over to his desk, opened the drawers until I found post-its, and wrote a little note for Wade. "I will put this where he can find it, okay?"

Charles nodded and I teleported to our room, put the post-it on his pillow, and went back to Xavier's office. "May we leave now?"

"Yes." I put my hand on Charles' shoulder, and took him to Stryker's little hideout.

* * *

We reappeared in front of Stryker and my dad who was in a prison cell who's bars were actually red security lasers. I hated seeing him like this, especially since this wasn't the first time that he's been in that kind of prison.

"Are you happy?" I sneered at Stryker.

He gave that stupid smile. "Almost. Now you just have to do what you promised."

"I'm not gonna give you the product unless you have the payment."

"Have I ever let you down?" Like I really had to answer that. He pulled out a four foot long metal case and handed it to me. I pulled out two swords and slid them into the sheathes that were already on my back.

"What's so special about those swords? Don't you already have some?" Xavier questioned. Amazingly, Stryker allowed me to answer.

"They're made of adamantium, just like Wolverine. They can cut through anything."

"And what are you going to do in exchange for them?" Dad asked.

"Hopefully something productive." I looked at him, and he knew that I had a plan.

* * *

"Thanks for letting me talk to you." Wade said to Ororo in front of her bedroom door.

She smiled. "I enjoyed it."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Wade was about to walk away when Storm grabbed his hand. He turned back around and she kissed his cheek.

He smiled even brighter, and then went back to our room. He fell onto his bed in the greatest euphoria. That was, until he felt the paper scratching his neck. He grabbed it, and was angry when he read, 'I needed Xavier to get my dad back. Don't tell.'

"Stryker you bastard." Wade said under his breath as he jumped up from his bed. "Storm!" He ran towards her door. They met about halfway.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to get a team together, and give them the pep talk of the century."

"Why?"

"Because first thing in the morning, we are going to war."

Her eyes widened with fear. "Why?"

"Because Andi is going to kill Xavier unless we stop her."


	17. Chapter 17

"I'm sorry about this Dad. I truly am." I said to Dad when Stryker left the three of us alone.

"What about him?" Robert looked over at Xavier.

"He volunteered." I was laying on the floor in the cell. Stryker was dumber than I imagined. Why would he put all three of us in the same cell?

"What are we doing here, Andi?" Robert asked.

"I don't really know. But I wouldn't worry about it too much." I held my hand out and my black hat appeared. I put it over my face and the other two just kind of looked at me. "Nothing's gonna go down until Wade shows up with Xavier's crew. And that's gonna be another day, day and a half. So, might as well take a nap until then."

"How can you act so calmly?" Xavier asked incredulously. "Your father was in mortal danger and you're going to take a nap?"

I took the hat off my face and sat up. "Alright, first off, he wasn't in mortal danger. If I know Stryker like I know I do, then he had absolutely nothing to worry about. Why? Because Pops here was used as blackmail. And Stryker, being the classy guy he is, he doesn't destroy blackmail. And secondly, I always plan everything out. Yes, I lied to you. Why? Because it was part of my master plan." When I get upset or stressed out, I speak very fast. And let me tell you, I was a frickin' motor mouth. "And let me tell you the next part of my most fantastical plan: this is the part where I betray you."

Xavier had this dumbfounded look as I teleported out of the cell. "Please tell me you're joking."

"She's not joking." Robert shook his head.

"How do you know?"

"Because Andi's allegiances lie with the highest bidder. And right now, this Stryker fellow is the highest bidder."

"How is it that you are okay with this?"

"Because that little girl always has a plan within a plan within a plan within a plan. She's too smart for her own good." He smiled a little. "She's exactly like my J'orah." He mused to himself.

"Who's J'orah?" Xavier asked.

"My daughter." Well, she used to be.

* * *

_I slowly went to Johnny's room where he'd been sitting alone for the past few hours. He didn't even want to look or talk to anyone. Like that was really going to stop me._

_I knocked gently and opened the door. "Charmander?" Maybe our old pet names would cheer him up a little._

"_I'm not in the mood Andi." He sniffled and wiped the tears that were falling down his cheeks._

"_Well that's too bad, cause I'm not leaving." I sat next to him on his bed. _

"_I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU!" He shouted at me but I didn't flinch. "I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO ANYONE!" If he was trying to scare me, it wasn't going to work. I wouldn't let it._

_In response to that, I said softly: "You aren't the only person in the world that knows what it's like to lose someone they love."_

_He finally looked at me, and his eyes were full of hate. I have never seen him like this, and I admit that it did scare me. "I don't know about you, but this is new for me." His tone wasn't just laced with anger, it was drowning in it. "And how dare you try to make this about you?"_

_That's it, get angry. Take everything out on me._

_He stood up and faced me. "You know, I take that back. This is bout you. You let my wife die. My other half, the mother of my child. How dare you?! How dare you let her die!!" With that, he slapped me across the face. Once again, I didn't flinch. And he did it again._

_I looked him straight in those pretty blue eyes. "Do you feel better now?"_

"_NO! Not even close!"_

_Okay. Time to break out the big guns. "Frankie was a whore. A skank-whore-slut-bitch if you will. In fact, I am actually surprised that Anita is yours."_

_I barely finished my sentence when Johnny punched me in the face. That hit was strong enough to throw me off the bed and land by the door. But it stop there. He came after me and started to beat me. He continuously hit my stomach, my face and only stopped when I grabbed his one fist and stopped it from hitting me._

"_Do you feel better now?"_

_He started taking deep breaths to calm down a little. "A little." He admitted. He got off of me and helped me up. Once I was steady on my feet, Johnny gave me an extremely tight hug. "Thanks Bulbasaur." He whispered in my ear._

"_If it counts for anything, I didn't mean what I said about Frankie." Strange, he's not as warm as he usually is._

"_I know you didn't." We stood there for a little while, me laying my head comfortably on his chest, and him resting his head on the top of mine. And then, in barely a whisper, he said, "I miss you."_

"_In what sense?"_

"_All of them."_

_I sighed. "I'm not going to be your rebound girl."_

"_I'm not asking you to be. But could you at least act like my best friend?"_

_I have kind of neglected him. "Of course I can do that. I am actually a professional best friend. But only for you." I added quickly at the end. And for the first time that day, he actually smiled._

"_What would I do without you?" Johnny asked as we pulled apart._

_I shook my head. "Obviously you wouldn't be as awesome as you are now." He gave the smallest chuckle and he ruffled my hair which was still short enough to be ruffled. "I think now is the perfect time for the best comfort food ever."_

"_And what's that?"_

"_Stuffing."_

I opened my eyes and got a slight smile on my face. Stuffing is the best comfort food.

"Stryker wants to see you, Traitor." Jesus Christ Superstar not her again.

I got up from my cot and went over to Danielle Moonstar. "Are you sure _I'm_ the traitor?" I whispered. "Because I'm not the one that's working with Mr. Fury." I breathed. Why didn't I shout it to the world? Because Stryker would kill her. As much as I didn't like her, I wasn't going to end her.

"You know?" For the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.

"How could I not know? You've got S.H.I.E.L.D practically written all over your face." The truth was, it wasn't that obvious. It just took a little research. I left her, eyes wide, and found Stryker in his "Office".

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes." He turned away from his security camera screens and looked at me. "It seems that our troubled teenager has come home. And he's brought friends." I looked at one particular screen and saw Wade with Xavier's team.

"I don't know what you want me to do about it. I can't take all of them by myself." I am such a liar. Of course I could take them by myself, I could do it blindfolded.

"I want leverage."

"I know the perfect person." I mumbled.

"Oh and look, our little soldier has even brought us Logan and Remy! What a wonderful family reunion this will be." That being said, I teleported out to the group of eight: Scott, Wade, Ororo, Jean, Rogue, Remy, Kitty, and Logan.

When I appeared to them, they had no idea who I was. Why? Because I had the same 'Deadpool' outfit as Wade, only the colors reversed, as well as a mask that covered my entire head. They only saw me for a second before I teleported behind Storm, grabbed her, then teleported to the cell where Xavier and Dad were.

"Xavier?!" She exclaimed in relief over seeing the man who has been a father to her. "Richard?"

"Robert." he corrected her as they shook hands.

"What are you two doing here?" she inquired.

"Better question is what are you doing here?" He asked Storm, but turned to me.

"Stryker wanted leverage and she was the first person I grabbed." I shrugged.

"_Liar."_ J'onn chimed.

"_Shut up."_

"Andi! Go welcome our guests." Stryker's voice echoed from his little corner of the hideout. I teleported without another word and appeared in front of their group.

"Give it up! It's seven against one." Wade shouted at me.

"No. It's eight against seven." Then, back up showed. Zero, Lady Deathstike, Fred, Mirage, Omega Red, Sabretooth, and Sauron (an old addition, but new to me). My team lined up like Xavier's with Zero facing Gambit, Deathstrike versus Jean, Fred against Kitty, Sauron facing Rogue, Sabretooth and Logan (obviously), Omega Red and Scott, and finally, Mirage and I versus Wade.

This was going to be fun.


	18. Chapter 18

Slice left, step right, block, stab right, step left...Wade and I fought as if we practiced. Like we really needed to practice. Mirage knew to keep her distance. And then came the screw up. I left my stomach open, and Wade took the opportunity to shove his katana threw me. He pulled it out and winked as I was the first to fall to the ground. Mirage made Wade's dad appear and he froze. No, he couldn't fight his own dad.

"Dad?" he asked uneasily. The figure didn't say anything, it only started running for him. "Dad, stop!"

"Get your head in the game, Winston!" I shouted as I jumped from the ground and cut Mirage's image of Wade's dad in half. I showed him my katana. "Silver, not red. It wasn't real."

"I knew you were a traitor!" she screamed.

"Once a traitor, always a traitor, Moonstar!" And then she did something unthinkable. She created the Silver Lantern army. All five thousand of them. "Go play with the other kids, Wade. The adults have to talk." He ran to Jean and started to help her with Deathstrike.

This was going to be so much easier with swords.

* * *

Stryker was watching everything from a television that he had brought to the cell so Xavier, Robert, and Storm could see. "Once a traitor, always a traitor." He said to the three of them as he watched me cut Wade's dad in half.

Robert flipped when he saw Mirage make the army appear. "No!" he ran to the laser bars and barely reacted when they burned him. "Make her take them back!" He shouted at Stryker.

"Why?"

"Just do it!!" Mr. Hawkins had never yelled at someone with this much intensity before. It just wasn't his style.

But Stryker just shook his head as he continued to watch, every now and then switching to another camera. "No."

* * *

Think. Three, one, two, three, four, two, one... I'll never take them all down at this rate. Come on, think! … The only way to kill a weed is to get at it's roots. I had to get to Mirage. But how do I get there. I can't find her if I don't know where she is. Le sigh, just work through the crowd I guess. The army wasn't even doing anything, they just stood there. That only made it two times easier on me. Four, three, five, two, six, one... Then I saw a glimpse of yellow in the pool of gray. Mirage. I teleported on the spot right next to her and I grabbed her with a blade to her throat.

"Call them back." I said with venom into her ear.

She took a second and the ugly monsters that were the Silver Lanterns disappeared. Before I could say anything, a helicopter came out of nowhere. And the worse so far popped out of it. Nick Fury.

"Let her go."

God I hate him. "Make me."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't want to fight me."

"No, I do. I just don't have the time." I threw Moonstar over to him, and went to Rogue and Sauron. They were the closest. And Rogue was in trouble. Sauron had her under a trance and was absorbing her energy and past mutant powers. I quickly slid my katanas back into their sheathes and grabbed one of the many guns that I was strapped with. I had almost perfect aim. One shot to the chest, and he was bleeding on the ground. I went over to Rogue, "You alright?" She didn't respond. "Okay then." I took off one of my gloves and touched her forehead.

The memory flashes started again, only this time it started where it left off: Johnny and mine's first kiss, then the day we met, then that last day of exams where Reed called me to come to New York, then the day when Mr. Hawkins adopted me, and then I was pulled away.

"I think you've had enough sugar today." Wade said to Rogue as he teared me away from her.

Seconds later, Rogue shot up with bated breath. "What did you do?"

"She went above and beyond the call of duty." Wade answered for me as he lifted me up. "Come on, let's go. We gotta job to do." He gave my face a quick slap, and I snapped awake.

"I'm up! I'm up." Wade put me back onto my feet, and I took out two more guns. He did the same. "You have the right?"

"Only if you've got the left."

"Move." And we started running towards the main building. Every time we would pass a group, we would stop, aim, and fire at Weapon X. I got Zero, he got Deathstrike, I got Omega Red, he got Sabretooth, and we both had to empty our rifles to make a dent in Fred. When all of them were down, and only the X-men were standing, the two of us dropped our empty guns and I teleported us into the main building. When we appeared, Stryker was no where to be found. I looked over to the laser cage and saw that Xavier and Storm were unconscious while Mr. Hawkins was standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking at me.

"You gonna take care of that?" I was a little peeved that he had let them be knocked out in the first place.

"Just waiting for you, kid." Then, Mr. Hawkins morphed into J'onn.

Wade just stood there with his mouth open. "I'm lost." He drawled.

I just patted his shoulder. "I'll explain everything later." He barely even noticed I was there because he was staring at Storm. "You okay?"

He snapped out of his trance. "Yeah, let's go." We started looking for Stryker in his office. And we found him. But that's not all we found.

Some lady had beaten us to the punch line. It wasn't just any lady, it was me. The Y-shaped scar on the inside of the left eyebrow was a dead giveaway. She was holding Stryker up from the ground by the collar of his shirt. She smirked when she dropped him.

"Tell them _I_ killed him, Andi. Not _you_." She then looked at Wade. "Looking good Wade." That made him smile. She pressed a button on the belt around her waist and she disappeared.

He went over to Stryker's body and said, "His neck is snapped."

"I did a good job too." Jesus Christ Superstar it's practically got a rip in it.

"Yeah she did. Damn."

"You killed him?" Xavier, J'onn, and Storm came into the 'office'.

"What?" Wade asked when he looked from the body. No way he was going to get blamed for something he didn't do.

"Did you kill him, Wade?" Storm looked hurt. Now the whole gang was here.

"No." She still looked skeptical. "Ororo you've gotta believe me."

I saw the look of 'I'm not sure' on her face, and it was my turn to protect Wade. "Wade. Didn't. Do. Anything!" Oh, great. Here comes the yelling. "What's the matter with you? He's asking, practically begging you to believe him, and you don't know? Are you fucking stupid?! Wade is madly in love with you, I don't know why, but he is. You know how I know? It's because he has yet to lie to you; in the entire few days that you've known each other, he hasn't even fibbed. He left himself wide open for you. And you did nothing but cry, and whine, and judge him for his past. You know I have met some real _fhaigheans _in my time, but _you_ take the cake."

J'onn's jaw dropped. He was the only one who could understand Gaelic, and he couldn't believe what I just said.

"You know, you've got a real bunch of fuck ups in this group." I had turned to Charles, but I wasn't angry at him, I was mad at everyone else. "Take the Ginger for example, she can't do a goddamned thing without fainting. And the boyfriend? He's too emotionally involved to do shit. Your pet dog over there cries and wets the bed every night because of his nightmares. It's been what, fifteen years since you got the metal claws, get over it!! Rogue and Kitty can't touch anything without a) killing it, or b) going straight through it; so I honestly don't know what they bring to the table, no offense guys."

"None taken." The two of them said, trying to control their fit of laughter. They thought that it was absolutely hysterical that someone was finally telling the X-Men off.

"Storm gets knocked out by lightning! Something that _she_ controls!! Rover is too blinded by 'rage' and 'fury' that he can't work with a team. You might as well drop him now, because his presence will not benefit you. The only one who actually contributes anything is Gambit. He is well trained in hand to hand combat, he has control of his powers, and he is probably the strongest mutant among you."

"Just because you aren't skilled physically, doesn't mean you're a weak mutant." Charles tried to reason with me.

My face went hard when Wade gave me the look. It was the same one that he had given me before at the movies. "Forty-seven years from now, you will learn that physical combat is superior to mental. Why? Because soon there will be devices that will probe your mind and turn you into the governments little pets. And the only way to escape is to rip it off. If you can't do that, then you are screwed." I then turned to J'onn (whose jaw was still dropped) and Wade, who was shaking his head with a smirk and I took a deep breath. "I feel better."

"You sure?" J'onn asked.

"Yeah, definitely. Okay, time to go home, boys." And just like that, J'onn and Wade started to follow me out of the building.

"Wait!" Scott said and the three of us turned around. "You're gonna leave, just like that?"

"Okay, look, here's the deal: I do something once, I do it very well, and then I move on. I have successfully defeated one the most feared men among all mutants, I did it without anyone suspecting it, and now I move on." I teleported Wade, J'onn, and myself back to Wade and mine's room at Xavier's.

* * *

I laid on the bed as I waited for Xavier to return. Wade and J'onn had gone back to the house, and I just wanted to thank Charles for everything. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait any longer, for I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." And in came Xavier. Damn, I'm a good guesser.

"Andrea, so good I caught you."

"I was waiting for you, Charles." I sat up and smiled at him. "I wanted to thank you for everything you've done in the past couple days. You really helped the plan succeed."

"Well, I wanted to give you something." He wheeled over to me and gave me a small box. I opened it, and took out a high-tech watch. "It's a hologram watch. You can program it to show you, exactly as you are, but without the tattoos. Maybe now you can wear short sleeved t-shirts in the summer."

I chuckled. "Thank you. Um, I seriously suck at goodbyes so...Next time I see you, I hope to join your little crusade. Because it's a good one, it truly is." I stood up and grabbed my bag from the floor. "Oh, and I hope that your team matures a little in my absence."

That made him laugh, and I teleported away.

* * *

"Hey Andi?" Wade asked that night as we slept in my living room.

"Yes Wade?" I answered from the chair as he laid on the couch.

"What are we gonna do now?"

"I don't know, Wade. I don't know."


	19. Chapter 19

Wade had decided to stay with me the rest of the summer. We had a new directive: Fix up the basement. Since I wasn't keeping Lance there anymore, I had decided to turn it into my own 'Bat cave'. Hey, if Bruce could have one, why couldn't I?

"Andi, can I ask you something?" Wade spoke as he set up the second of four mannequins downstairs.

"Anything you want, Wadiepoo." I said as I dressed the first mannequin in my very first uniform: tan khaki pants and a hunter green spandex leotard.

"You know how you said that you'd explain everything to me later? It's later."

I chuckled. "Well, it all started the first night I returned to Stryker's. After everyone had gone to sleep, I had J'onn and Dad switch places. That way Mr. Hawkins could stay with the family, and J'onn would stand in for him. He really did a magnificent job pretending."

"Yeah, Storm told me what he did to Stryker."

"What?" We had stopped working now, and were just looking at each other.

"He didn't tell you?" I shook my head. "J'onn screamed at Stryker when Mirage created that army. He yelled at him to make her take them back, I don't know why, but he did."

"I'll be right back." I mumbled then teleported away.

"We don't go anywhere anymore." Wade said to himself as he continued to work on the basement.

* * *

J'onn was sitting in the Watch Tower with Flash, Batman, and Green Lantern having lunch. It was pizza today.

"So how's Iris doing?" Bruce asked Flash.

"She's good, gotta a new boyfriend."

"That's so weird." GL shook his head as he took another bite of pizza.

"Dude, I know."

Suddenly, I appeared next to J'onn. "Why did you say that?!"

"Say what?"

"Why did you tell Stryker to make Mirage stop? I can take care of myself you know. I am an adult, ask the state!"

"I do not care how old you are! I didn't want you to relapse, you know what happened last time!" He stood up and towered over me.

I took a deep breath and said through clenched teeth. "J'onn, I am a mature adult who has been living on her own for many years now. I do not need _you_ to watch my back!"

Ouch, J'onn thought but he still kept his 'angry face' . "Then go. If you don't need me, then I won't be there."

"Fine!" I shouted before I teleported away.

A terrible awkward silence erupted between the group. That is until Bruce said, "You know she doesn't like it when you play Daddy."

He sighed. "Yes, I know." With that, he left the group to go to his room.

Bruce had followed him. "What she said hurt, didn't it?"

He groaned when Bruce made himself known, but then he remembered that Bruce was his best friend, so he answered, "Yes, it did. But I won't let her know that. As long as she's stubborn, then I'll be stubborn."

It was Bruce's time to sigh. "J'onn, you know that when Andi is upset she doesn't mean a word she says."

"I don't care, if she doesn't want me to watch her back, then I won't protect her." And then Bruce gave him that 'Please' look. "At least as far as she knows."

Bruce smiled. "That's the J'onn I know."

* * *

"So...Chinese?" I asked Wade as we vegged on the couch after a hard day's work.

"Yeah." After a second, he jumped up from the couch. "Let's go out to eat."

"What?"

"Let's actually go to the Wok and Roll and eat there. We never go out anymore."

"You know, we're not married nor are we going out. All you have to do is tell me you want to go out. I'll be more than happy to take you places." Did I seriously just say-

"I don't want to have to tell you! I want you to come up with it on your own." He crossed his arms over his chest all chick-like.

"I can't think of you _all_ the time. I have other stuff to do."

And then it dawned on both of us. "Oh my God, we are a married couple." And with a scared look on both of our faces we blindly sank into the couch.

"I don't want to be a married couple, I'm too young." I was shaking my head over and over again.

"I don't want to be a married couple, I still haven't done everything I wanted to do."

"You know, just because you get married doesn't mean that you can't do the stuff that you want to. You just have to learn to compromise with your spouse. Some things you're gonna have to put on hold because when your married you can't go off on your own all of the time, you have to do them with your spouse. That's what marriage is all about: being together." Wade just looked at me like I was crazier than a crazy straw.

"I actually paid attention to the videos in Life Skills." I explained.

"Got it." And we sat there in a weird silence. "So are we still goin' out for dinner?"

"Yeah." I smiled and grabbed my keys from the dish next to the couch.

* * *

"So how mad were you at J'onn?" Wade asked as he ate his General Tso's chicken with fried rice, and I ate my Orange chicken with fried rice.

"I was pretty mad."

"Why? He was just worried about you."

"I don't like it when people try to protect me. I don't need it."

Then Wade grinned like an idiot. "You like it when _I_ protect you."

"That's cause you're my partner and you're supposed to protect me. Just like I'm supposed to protect you."

After a second, he said, "J'onn is like a daddy figure to you, right?"

I shrugged. "I guess so."

"And fathers care about their kids right?"

"Yeah."

"And fathers that do care usually do things to protect their kids, right?"

"Yeah."

"So J'onn was just trying to show you that he cared."

God dammit. I hate it when people teach me what I already know. "I'm not apologizing."

"Not asking you to." He picked at his chicken.

"Don't make me feel like this Wade. Because I'm not apologizing." I swear if I go on another guilt trip I'm gonna kill someone. Literally, and I'll be happy about it.

"I know." He nonchalantly ate his rice.

"Don't put all this pressure on me." I warned him.

"I'm not putting any pressure on you. But if it were my dad, I'd like it if he kept an eye out for me."

I knew that was the truth. When it came to his dad, he always wished he could've done more. I know, it's very cheesy. But at least it's sweet.

"Fine. I'll do it...but I'll do it when I damn well please."

"Okay." Wade smiled.

"Stop harping me, would you!"

* * *

I had to get away from Wade. He made me feel guilty. I don't get it, I can kill seven thousand six hundred and fifty nine people without a conscious, yet I can't yell at one person without feeling so bad that an emo kid would look like Kristen Chenoweth.

"Andi, you aren't scheduled today." Judy Evans, the lady at the main desk said to me.

"I know, Judy. I just want to sit in my chair." I said sheepishly.

"Would you like me to tell Mr. Wayne that you're here today?" She started to reach for her phone.

"No, I'm sure he'll find me sooner or later." We smiled at each other and I headed towards the elevator. Damn, there's people in it, can't teleport out. Just take a breath and suck it up, you're just going downstairs. I gotta say though, I had my eyes closed the whole time. When the elevator opened to Applied Sciences, I finally opened my eyes and went to my desk.

I sat in my wheelie chair, and I felt so much better. I don't know what it was about this chair, but it just took all of my troubles away. Feeling so relaxed, I put my feet on my desk, and closed my eyes. Maybe a nap was all I needed.

And then I heard a waltz. It wasn't really a waltz, but the footsteps were alert and graceful, so they could be perceived as a waltz. Only one person I know walks like that.

"You know, usually the boss doesn't bring mail to the employees." Bruce's cool voice said happily.

I could only smile. "You could've just sent one of the interns."

"I actually got call from Charles Xavier, asking me to deliver this in person." He placed the slightly larger than average box onto my desk.

I opened it, and smirked when I saw the dark blue-black spandex uniform with a large green X on it. I took out the suit, and underneath it was a pair of knee high metal boots and a matching green metallic eye mask.

"They also sent you a telegram, and requested I tell it to you in a British accent, but I'm not gonna do that." I chuckled. "Dear Andrea, I hope that you will 'join my little crusade' sooner than later. Our team could use your knowledge and your presence would be greatly appreciated. Charles Xavier. PS, The boots were Gambit's idea." Bruce finished and looked at me.

"What?" I was loving the boots, not gonna lie.

"Are you joining them?"

"No, but I am diggin' the boots." These would look fab with my reverse Deadpool costume.

"Good, cause J'onn would be pissed."

"Then maybe I will join."

Bruce rolled his eyes and sighed. "Why can't you two just get along?"

"Because he broke rule number one: Don't piss me off."

"Oh come on! If that was really Robert, you wouldn't have thought about yelling at him."

"Robert is my dad now, J'onn isn't."

"You know he thinks of you as his own-"

"Just because he thinks it doesn't mean it's true." I took a deep breath to keep calm. "He knows that I am honored to be compared to J'orah, but I am not her."

Then Bruce got confused. "His daughter's name is K'hym."

I shook my head. "K'hym is the daughter of M'yri'ah, not J'onn. J'orah is the daughter of J'onn, not M'yri'ah. The only exception, was that no one knew of J'orah except her mother and him." And then a chuckle escaped me. "He told me that, 'everyone has a little Green Arrow in them'. I didn't know he was talking about the cheating until I heard what Ollie had done."

"See? He's not all bad."

"I know he's not, but I'm still not apologizing."

"Come on Gypsy, why not?" Oh great, he pulled out the pet names.

"Well Hayes, that would break rule number two: No regrets." He scoffed.

"What's the real reason?"

I shrugged. "I don't want him to think that I'm weak. I can take care of myself. He has it implanted in his brain somewhere that I'm going to end up like J'orah, or K'hym, or M'yri'ah if he's not there to protect me. But I'm not."

"I know that you're not going to end up like them, but _I_ still worry about you."

"You're my brother, you're supposed to worry."

"And J'onn can't worry?"

I gave him the puppy eyes. "You're not playing fair."

Bruce smiled. "I'm not supposed to play fair. I'm an adult."

"Me too."

And he chuckled. "Yes you are. And an adult would say, 'Screw rule two,' and forgive him."

"Stop making me go through a guilt trip. You're just like Wade."

"Then Wade's a pretty smart guy. Because anyone that knows you, knows that the only way you'll do something you don't want to do, is to guilt you into it."

"Please don't guilt me into anything, I'm not in the mood." I stood up and was about to leave when...

"Andi don't leave yet." I stopped. "Look, what you said really hurt him. The least you could do is apologize."

"What did I say?"

"That you didn't need him. You basically told him that he had no purpose in life."

"His purpose in life should not be me-"

"Well it's going to be!" his outburst actually scared me. "When we are gone he is going to have no one but you. You are going to become the only one to understand him, to accept him. Don't fuck up your friendship because you're too proud." With that Bruce left me alone to gather my thoughts.

"I'm not." I murmured.

* * *

"Why won't she just talk to him?" Bruce complained.

"Dude, I don't know. Andi is still a mystery to me." Wade plopped onto the couch and Bruce followed suit.

"Why can't she just swallow her pride?"

"It's not about pride, Brucie." A voice by the stairwell in my house startled them. They turned and saw the same older woman who had interfered earlier. She was still in the outfit prior (A pair of tan cargo pants with the bottoms tucked into a pair of knee high metal boots, with a black wife-beater and two swords strapped to her back. Along with the swords, she had four guns: two in a waist holster, and one strapped on each of her boots).

"Andi?" Bruce asked getting up and going over to her.

She nodded. "About nineteen years into the future."

"How did you get here?" It was Wade's turn to ask questions.

She then touched the belt around her waist. "Nathaniel."

"Who?"

"Never mind. Look, what's going on with Andi is not pride, it's guilt. You two have sent her into a guilt trip thanks to your prodding. And do you know what happens when Andi goes on a guilt trip?" she paused for dramatic effect. "She takes it out on herself. This time, she's doing it differently: She's distancing herself from everyone. Soon, she won't talk to you two, or the Hawkins family, or Johnny, or anyone. She's just going to waste her life away in this old house because she feels guilty for yelling at J'onn. If you two don't fix this, I'm not going to exist. And trust me, I like existing. So fix it!"

"How?"

She shook her head in confusion. "I-I don't know. It was a long time ago."

"How can you not know? You're Andi!"

"Like I said, it was a long time ago." She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose in thought. "Uh, you could try telling her that what she did was justified."

"But it wasn't." Bruce argued.

"It doesn't matter if it was or not. You either figure out a way to fix this or she's going to try and do it on her own. And then BAM! She's going to shoot herself in the foot."

"Alright," Wade took a deep breath and said, "Well, we've obviously got to get them together to apologize to each other."

"Why should J'onn have to apologize?" Bruce questioned.

"First off, he broke rule number one, and he knew the consequences of breaking rule number one. And second of all, I don't really know J'onn, so I'm gonna side with Andi." Well, at least he's honest.

"Well I know J'onn, and I know he was just showing her that he cared-"

"Oh my God! I'll do it!" Future-Andi yelled, throwing up her hands in defeat.

* * *

"Okay," Future-Andi said as she circled me and J'onn in the Watch Tower cafeteria. "Here's how this is going to go down: On the count of three, you are both going to apologize. I do not care what you apologize about, or to whom you apologize, I just want to hear, 'I'm sorry' to come out of both of your mouths."

"And what if we don't?" J'onn asked.

"Then I'm going to shoot both of you in the head." She took out the two guns from her wait holster and pointed them at J'onn and mine's heads. "Then I'll wait for you to regenerate, and we'll try this again. We will do this until you get it right. Now, one...two...three."

" _Gabh mo leigseul_" I murmured.

"Sorry." J'onn said almost as soft as me.

Future-Andi put her guns away. "That's better. Now that you've said sorry," She turned to me. "Stop being depressed," then she turned to J'onn. "And stop thinking that you're life will be worth nothing. Trust me, you will be plenty busy in the future."

And then, she got a peppy skip in her step. "Now children, if you'll excuse me, I have more blood suckers to kill." She winked at the two of us and pushed a button on her belt that made her disappear.

"I'm sorry for calling Storm a vagina." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm sorry I ever cared about you."

And just like that, our friendship was over.


	20. Chapter 20

Andi Hojem Series (In Order):

1. Intelligence Doesn't Mix With Nature – Static Shock

2. The First Summer – Fantastic Four

3. The Second Summer – X-Men Evolution

4. The Third Summer – Iron Man

5. College Of Nightmares – Blade

6. The Beginnings Of A Long Life – X-Men Evolution (Coming Soon)

7. I Promise To Be Careful – Fantastic Four

8. Lives Of The Children – Fantastic Four (Coming Soon)

9. Inheritances – Batman Beyond (Coming Soon)

10. Epilogue – Static Shock (Coming Soon)


End file.
